Cameron Karwowski

Track Nationals

2012-02-07T14:19:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone.

A quick update on my thoughts on the recent national championships. Leading up to the weekend of the champs, I seemed to gain some good form on the back of a good campaign in Beijing. Based on times and sessions completed in training, Ross, my coach and I were confident to go out and ride a personal best time for the individual pursuit.

Having trained specifically for the 4km Individual Pursuit for the weeks before, Involving a big hard weekend on the road, some freshening up, then hitting some IP efforts, all things were on track for a good one. However, the day before, I felt slightly different, with a high resting heart rate.. but nothing else to suggest sickness.

Day one was the big day with the IP and Kilo time trial.

I warmed up as usual and went out in the IP on the right pace 22 second first lap and 16.3/16.2 second laps. or "6.3's" as the calls are made. As I got to the 10th lap my legs just started to crumble, I had to snap left in them to carry me to the finish at a good speed. I died all the way to the line.. my time was 4.32:308. My third best.. But considering my best is 4.29 and I did that a year ago, progression would suggest I should go faster. I qualified 4th fastest behind Wes Gough, Pete Latham and Alex Frame. His first elite track nationals and he rocks a 4.25! Impressive.

After the qualifying I was not in a good state, I was on the ground for about 30minutes absolutely wrecked. When I sat up I spewed into a bin. It was rough as. There was no way I wanted to do that ever again.

So in the ride off for bronze, I just wanted to go out there and have a solid and steady ride, I wasn't after the medal. It would have been very tough to go 7 seconds faster than qualifying to beat A Frame. The ride possibly helped me later in the night. I sat on 6.7's and was probably going to end up riding the same time as qualifying but in a much more even way.

I approached the Kilo like a 2 lap race, rather than looking at it as what it is, 4 laps. I chucked a 104" gear on the bike, watched every heat as the times got faster and faster.. Lots of times sub 1.04.. My Pb was 1.03:8, I was going to have to pull out something special to get on the podium.

I was last heat, so I knew I had to ride faster than Wes's 1:03.1 to win the event. I wasn't actually thinking about winning at the time at all, just knowing that I have to beat myself to go faster than my best, thats all I wanted.

I attacked the countdown, as I heard 1second to go just go passed. I pulled the gate slightly as it let me go. I put every bit of power and energy into the pedals and winding it up, I had the gear absolutely humming by the time I sat down 3/4's of a lap into it. When I sat down I stepped on it. 19.2 standing lap. To go fast I needed to keep that gear spinning as quickly as I could. As planned, for half a straight in the second lap, I came down to 98% effort.. Then wound it as I hit the corner to make the most of the G's. 13.9 2nd lap. 33.0 500m time. From then it was all about giving it death and powering everything I could into the pedals, from the way I was getting cheered, I knew I was up, but not by how much. 14.3 3rd lap The last half lap was in typical kilo fashion.. messy! I threw my bike to the line. 15.1 4th lap. I held on well. 1:02.698. As I heard the "1:02" from the commentator I threw my hands up, hoping that I had heard him right! I was ecstatic, hands in the air as I went past the crowd in the home straight. A massive 1.2seconds off my PB. Oh how the day had quickly turned around. I am now the 4th fastest kilo rider in NZ history. behind Simon,

Ed, and Hash.

Kilo Cup

Wes, Me and Gatey Podium time.

The Southland Team 2012

I had a rest day on the Sunday, avoiding the Points race. Hoping to do well in the Scratch and Madison on the monday. I had a technically good scratch race, if I had had the legs, I was in the perfect position with 4 laps to go for a result. Unfortunately I struggled most of the race, leaving me with nothing in the most crucial time. I was actually embarrassed at how poor I was racing.

Piet Bulling and I then had a 40km Madison about 20minutes after we had finished the scratch race. I obviously wasn't feeling good so when we talked about how we were going to race it, we made sure positioning and timing during the race were absolutely crucial, if we got caught at the back for more than 10laps, we would be dead and out of the race very quickly! The field was quickly down to 5 teams after 60 laps. We picked up 6 points in the first two sprints.. but from that point on we were all about just staying with the front pack!. Again, it was criminal how bad my legs were. We hung in there till the finish. We finished 5th, the young team Hayden McCormick and Dylan Kennett won the race in the hardest way possible. Staying out there on there own for a majority of the race. They took the lap and outclassed the older more experienced rivals in the process.

I am now on a 2-3week break away from the bike to let the body and mind recoup, to build up for a big season. The plan is starting to take shape, it is different to the original one I had a few days ago, but it is still massive and allows plenty of opportunities.. When I have more cement I will give more detail :).

Thanks for reading.

TDV&Beijing World Cup

2012-01-29T12:54:00.000-08:00

So today, while I have a rest day, I thought I better give the old blog a good update on the latest happenings, mainly Tour de Vineyards and Beijing World Cup.

So it was my 5th go at the Tour de Vineyards. It feels weird saying that.! I have seen many changes to the tour, and now know the scripts to most of the traditional stages of the tour. With a date change and constantly updated stages every year, the tour never loses its appeal. It's always quite challenging, but more often then not, most people are there for the weather, good fast racing and a few laughs along the way. To finish on New Years Eve is a great change, as it allows everyone to relax a bit more after the tour! I was disappointed with the weather, and due to the lack of intensity in my legs, the racing didn't go my way either.. But that was the reason I was at the tour, the intensity.

This effect was intended for the Track Camp for Beijing, starting on the 1st of January. I battled my way through most of the efforts at the camp, feeling better each day.

Next challenge was the flight to Beijing, not the longest flight, but still from Invercargill - CHCH - Auckland - Beijing. A decent haul over a day and a half. I was fortunate enough to successfully pull off the 2xsleeper/glass of red wine combination and sleep for a majority of the asia flight.

Upon arrival to Beijing we had the whole day to kill and recover from the flight. The initial shock of the sub 0 temperature soon wore off, due to our puffers, beanies, gloves and anything warm we could get our hands on.. One of the mechanics, Ben was still happy in his shorts at -6degrees. Driving through the city from the airport, we were able to soak up some of the sights, on a calm day the visibility in the city is less than 200meters. This is due to the shear amount of cars constantly on the road, the roads are like a rat race, like much of the chinese culture. Lots of pushing and shoving to get ahead.. It's usually whoever puts their car on the line the most that gets the spot they want. We past slums and cramped up grey apartment blocks, line after line of them. Alley's swamped with trash, people smoking, coughing and spitting everywhere.. Quite the change from NZ.

Later in the day the TP team went to the Beijing Silk Markets. A 5 story building with almost anything you could ever buy. Familiar Western brands of Jeans, Underwear, Socks, T-shirts, Suits, Bags, Glasses, Watches.. Everything under the sun, all fakes - but still at a decent quality. Nothing has price tags, you have to barter with the stall holders to settle on a price. The sellers try and start up a sale with you, every aisle that you walk down, they grab you and try and drag you into their stall, the less people that are at the markets, the more desperate they are to sell. It has to be said that they are amazing salespeople. This must be from the sheer amount of experience they get. The process is long and drawn out, but entertaining as the harder you bargain, the more upset they pretend to get. It takes about 10-15minutes to get the seller down from their ridiculous price down to your initial offer. They assure you that, "Oh you are such a hard bargainer, where are you from??", "You have a cold heart!". etc.. but I can almost guarantee they will make money on every sale. They must get some gullible americans in there paying there first price offer.

After the excitement of the first day, Passing Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. It was time to settle down into a routine at the hotel and the track. We only had 4 days to finish our prep for competition, with 3 sessions on the track. I was only riding the Team Pursuit.

Our typical day was, wake up, Breakfast at the hall before 9am. 30min Rollers before Lunch at midday. Track session in the afternoon, dinner at 6. Movie or something else to keep you from boredom until sleep.. a very inactive day. It was fairly depressing at the start of the week receiving 6 days worth of meal tickets. 3 a day.. of more or less the same thing! I was looking forward till after competition to try out some of the more exotic and interesting looking food.

During the third track session, I could finally feel a bit of snap in my legs, and able to complete an effort to the standard that I would usually expect of myself. This came just in time, as the TP qualifying was the following day.

I woke up the next day for qualifying, to settle in for a day of waiting for the night. By midday I knew something was not quite right with my guts. My diet had completely changed over the last week. I was bloated and very sore all afternoon, I'll give you a hint - starts with con and ends with stipation, not very nice at all . It made me lose focus of the TP and concerned for my health! The Qualifying rolled around quick. before I knew it, I was in the number 1 position in the team watching the counter click down. I did my Job of a 20.5second start lap and then 2 further turns on the front, before getting out of the line just before the 3km mark after my last lap. The team went on to record a 4.04.1 to qualify 3rd.

I was hoping that the stress and anxiety of qualifying would be the reason to my sickness.. and that after the race I would get fixed and be 100% for the next day. Boy was I wrong! I was up most of the night, in pain, watching the time crawl by after resorting to sleepers I slept on the toilet for 2hours in the early morning. I have never had a more excruciating night of pain. By morning, The team pursuit final for 3rd/4th was far in the back of my mind. I battled on all day, eating lots and lots of fruit and vege, and lots of water. By night time, I was a shadow of myself. with 5mins until ride time I began to focus on the job at hand. I was able to get through and do a better job than the previous days effort. a 20.6, another lap, and then a half at pace. I was able to watch as the team went on to claim 3rd and record 4.03:2. I was happy, but now my main focus was to feel normal again!

Another night of pain and no sleep followed, I might have got 4 hours sleep. With no improvement the next day. Most of day was spent confined in my room staring into space.

I went to the hospital that day, received some sachets of liquid, that I heavily overdosed on in hope!!! Nothing happened. By the night time I was feeling ok, Got a little more sleep with 5 or 6hours. Then it was the last day in Beijing. I was very much looking forward to it being over! It had been some of the most painful days of my life.. I went back to the markets on my own to pass the time, I even went down to the track to watch Jo K and Wes and Myron's Madison at night. I went home early while many of the team were packing to try and get an early night and catch up on some sleep and get back to normal, only to find out that by doing this I had shot myself in the foot by not helping for an extra 30minutes. I was told I would be going with the first group to the airport at 5am with the first group to help pack and unload the truck, and wait at the airport for an extra 5hours until my flight with the rest of the group. So I got another 5hour sleep. I was in a bad state at the airport, I fell asleep on a hard park bench for an hour while "watching the bikes".

To finally be on the plane for the day and a half journey was a relief. To finally be in my own bed and back to normal in Invercargill was simply unreal. I had some serious sleep to catch up on!

10seconds to go

Starting the Team

Myron on the front of the TP

Down to three

Immediately after the Final,

Me and Wes

On the Podium

Not the most pleasant post, I'm sorry! In a week I have NZ Elite Track Nationals, I am focusing on the Individual Pursuit, and I'm also doing the Kilo TT, Scratch race and Madison with Pieter Bulling. After nationals Ross has decided it is best for me to take 3 weeks off (or close to) in order to get complete reset of the body and mind, before heading into the 2012 season. I should be able to give you a better idea of my season plan in my next post!

Cheers, Cam

Oceania Track Championships

2011-11-27T19:24:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone.

I am going to give you a bit of insight into my recent Oceania Track Championships. I have competed in every 'Oci's' since my first ride with the NZ juniors in 2008.

Leading into the competition I had a BikeNZ camp where I was riding as an Omnium rider, and a reserve for the 2nd Team Pursuit team. I was absolutely useless in the camp due to a bad cold that is still refusing to completely go away.. Its been around for about 2 weeks now. I literally started the sessions at the camp, but I was going so bad, that I was told to go home and rest, for the first 4 days of the 5 day camp.

On the 4th day of the camp most of you know, Hayden Roulston withdrew - due to problems with the selection policy and his Pro-team for next year. Leaving him incapable of making the Olympic team. As he was in the 'B' Team Pursuit team I was called in to do the efforts the day before the competition started. Big Jase Allen was also called in just incase I wasn't up to it.

I wasn't completely 100% but was still fresh enough to mix it with the guys in the 2 efforts. I got the green light to do the TP the next day.

My line up for Oceanias was now

Team Pursuit
Scratch Race
Omnium
Madison

Thats a big lineup crammed into 4 days.

So the TP was quite last minute for me, but I slotted into the team well enough to help Myron, Wes and Pete. We rode a 4:05.2, very tidy for the first 3km then a bit messy in the last 3 laps as I called 3 and pulled off. We qualified 2nd to NZ A team. Being Oceania's Australia automatically gets a ride in the final. We were to ride off against Southland in the 3rd and 4th final on the now lightning fast boards.

It was a quick catch in the first 7 laps.

Later that night we had the scratch race. I was lacking in fitness and the freshness was gone, I struggled through the race unable to stir it up as much as I would have liked. It was very quick! A nz record at 16m44s won by Myron Simpson.

A rest day flew by and we were into the Omnium. I clocked a PB in the flying lap with a 13.284 but was pipped by Novie who did a 13.19. I really wanted to have a good go at the Points and the Elimination that night. Which would set me up for a good position leading into the final day. Unfortunately I had a bad points race, missing all the moves and going at the wrong times. I was 5th in a lot of the sprints.. unfortunately there are no points for 5th. I ended up 8th.

The elimination was very eventful and was a great example of why the event shouldn't be raced at the Olympics.. A crash on a sprint lap that I narrowly avoided by going onto the grey under big Jase! Wes didn't realize he had been eliminated.. race was neutralized. etc. Lots of contact and confusion under the rules. I managed to take 2nd behind Novie after racing it on the edge.. Opting to ride in the shelter, putting me in danger of being eliminated. Which I came very close to a couple of times.

The final day consisted of the 4km IP 15km scratch race and the kilo time trial. I had also entered for the madison at the end of the night.... I was amped for the IP, I really wanted to test myself and go deep as I was still in good contention for a podium position. I went out and tried to settle in on a 16.3 lap time for the 4km. It was going very well for the first 3km, then it all caught up with me as I hit the wall. I finished in a 4m33s, 4 seconds off my PB and in 6th spot in the omnium. I was on the ground wrecked for a good 10minutes. Sometimes belief and will can push the body beyond its limits. My average power was a PB, one good thing I can take from that ride.

The scratch race was strange.. very slow, no one wanted to show their cards and the race was to be decided in a sprint. I was in a good position with 4 laps to go, but was caught off guard and found myself sprinting at the back of the field after a bad call.

After those two events I was basically out of contention going into the last event. The omnium finishes with a kilo, better said that the omnium always finishes with a blast. Its a good event for me to finish on. I nailed a PB with a 1:03.8 breaking the 1:04 barrier for the first time in a while.

After this I had to get amped for the Madison with Myron as my partner. The only NZ pairing in the race. We went really well for the first 100 laps of the 160lap race. we had the timing nailed and took sprints with relative ease.. changing with 8 1/4, 5 3/4, 3 1/4, 3/4 laps to go. It's a difficult formula to use while racing, but once you have it, winning sprints come relatively easy!

We may have focused on the too much, leaving ourselves vulnerable to attacks later in the race. Two aussie teams and the pairing of Scud and Jase managed to take a lap up on us after we were isolated for too long..lesson learnt.

I have a busy December. I am off to the Festival of Cycling on the 3rd and 4th. After that i'll be off to Tauranga to see Beth. On the 14th i'm going to Australia for the Australian Madison nationals finishing on the 17th. Back to Blenhiem... Christmas with the family! then straight into the now 5 day Tour de Vineyards in Nelson.

From then I have been advised I am going to the Beijing World Cup in early january, so I'll be doing a track camp from the 1st of Jan till we head over to China on the 7th. Exciting times!!!

Cam

Omnium Nationals and Tour of Southland

2011-11-06T11:21:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone

I will be doing just a quick update for my latest two events completed in the last three weeks:

Track Camp
Omnium Nationals
The Tour of Southland
Whats to come

The track camp 3 weeks ago was a huge first step towards an Olympic spot in London next year. It was a very tough layout of efforts designed to test us all and see who was deserving of a spot in the next stage of selection. I can't say I performed at a level that I wanted leading into the camp. This could be due to a small flu that had me in bed for 2 days, just a couple of days before the start of the camp.

Midway through the camp the team competed in the National Omnium Championships. I was very motivated for a good result in this events, with my key strengths lying in the flying lap and kilo events, all I had to do was perform well in the mass start events. On the first night I was able to come out in 2nd place, by just 1 point to Aaron Gate. I placed 1st in the flying lap, 4th in the points race, and managed 4th in the elimination after an awkward crash.

The next nights competition took a turn for the worse, as I performed badly in the 4km individual pursuit placing 10th. Partly due to a seat not being tightened enough by somebody else. Then in the scratch race, I placed 10th and finished with a good kilo for 3rd.. and overall I placed 4th on 33 points. the top three were Aaron Gate, Marc Ryan and Hayden Roulston. I was only 3 points back on Roly.

The camp then wound down and we finished with a tough short session. It was still very evident that I could perform very well in the sort efforts, such as standing 500, motor kilos and team pursuit kilos.

At the end of the camp I had a meeting to find out, I was still a long shot for the London Olympics, but I had made it to the next stage in selection, being the Oceania Championships.

After just 10 days upon finish this camp I was on the start line for the 2011 Tour of Southland. The countries most prestigious and grueling tour. After 4 weeks of training less than 10 hours a week for track, I was aware that the tour could be very hard on my body as it involves 7 days, 8 stages a total of over 900km on rough roads, in atrocious conditions. We had a very strong, youthful team, with lots of experience. The team was Shane Archbold, Myron Simpson, Tom Scully, Alex Frame, Josh Atkins and Myself. I had ridden with Shane and Myron the whole year, and Tom for part of the year in Europe, as most of you know. We also had Alex Frame, who had just come out of Junior Track worlds and then road worlds, and Josh Atkins, our GC man who had ridden for Lance Armstrongs, U23 Trek Livestrong team for the year. We went into the tour with goals to take a stage win and secure the U23 jersey for Josh.

After taking 2nd in the Prologue Team Time Trial, our team knew we would challenge for the u23 title very strongly, but still had no idea of the week to come. Josh took 2nd up Bluff on day 3, I had also spent the whole day in the break and managed to take the first KOM on Bluff hill.

on day 4 we were still in great contention, with Josh still only 10 seconds down on Roly. Day 5 Te Anau - Queenstown's Crown Range was one of the toughest most epic days I have spent on a bike. We started in 6 degree sleet, and it slowly improved over the day. When we got the word that Roly had withdrawn from the tour, it was all on, I knew we were racing for Yellow - but it was still going to be a huge 3 days and 415km until we could claim it. I was on the front working with Pure Black Racing straight away. After driving it in the crosswinds from Mossburn to Five Rivers we had shrunk the peleton to less that 40 riders, it was still a 100km slog into a headwind over the devils staircase to the bottom of the Crown Range. The team worked brilliantly and stayed strong to set Josh up for the win and take some very valuable time.

We then had to treat the next day as a one day race, and ride our hearts out to hold onto Josh's lead all the way from Invercargill to Gore. The one factor that was helping us, but could also destroy us was the strong gusty winds. The team were able to ride most of the 167km stage on the front. Early on in the stage the wind was strong enough to split the field up so much, we were considered the break away group! Everyone and every team who was in contention for the title threw everything they had at us, and we were able to take it, regroup and then chase them down. After taking Josh to the last 25km of Tailwind, the team was completely spent and finally the competition had broken us, I still bet the peleton in by 12minutes, but I trailed the winner of the stage, Tim Gudsell, but 10minutes. After finding out that we had held the Yellow leading into the final day, I was stoked.

The next day we woke up to snow, sleet, hail, rain and strong winds. I knew straight away that they couldn't run a race in the conditions, but wouldn't be surprised if they did. They ended up canceling the 12km Individual Time Trial, which I don't think would have made a hell of a difference to the result with Josh a strong time trialist on a specially setup bike. All we had to do was wait until 12pm to find out whether we were to race a final stage back into Invercargill. The team was very nervous, as it was such a sort stage with a minutes lead, but still, so much could go wrong. 75km with strong winds, even the strongest rider could get caught out and lose 5mins with bad positioning. Luckily our Powernet team were solid and we were quick to the front as the race started in a crosswind! within 3km, again the peleton was split in half. Our young team was impressive as we sped towards Invercargill as fast as we could to secure the win. Once again a lot of opposition was thrown against us, which made the race very hard for anyone trying to stay near the front. Only 20 riders finished in the front group. I came across the finish line, saw the thumbs up, and my team, I was ecstatic! After fronting the media, we quickly rode home and all jumped straight into the motel spa and we were quickly surrounded by pizzas and beer! Great.

a good nights celebration followed with the very proud and dedicated Powernet support staff.

This leads to where I am now, in bed, studying for my exams in a few days! talk about anti climax!

I also have to get back on the bike in the near future to start getting ready for the Oceania Cycling Championships held in Invercargill on the 21-25th . I won't be lacking the motivation for the event, and something tells me(my legs) I will have gathered form from the race.

you can find photos and videos of the tour at:

http://www.tourofsouthland.com/index.php?pageLoad=1

http://www.pbase.com/bruggersphotography/2011_tour_of_southland

http://www.facebook.com/dianne.manson?sk=photos

Thanks for your support and I look forward to hearing from you all!

Cam

NZ update

2011-09-07T16:27:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone out there.

So I’m going to let you know the latest news in my world.

I am back in NZ now, so I thought I better go over the last couple of events I did before I got to this point.

· Mi Aout Bretagne – a four day stage race in France

· Schaffen Kermesse win

· Tour of Murray River – an 8 day stage race in Australia.

· Whats coming up

Mi Aout Bretagne was definitely not what I had expected, none of us in the team expected the race to be quite as hard as it was.

We had a good team at the race – Myself, Shane ‘Novie’ Archbold, Aaron ‘Gatey’ Gate, Myron ‘Sancho’ Simpson, Marc ‘Dream’ Ryan and Joe Cooper.

The race consisted of four long stages between 160-190km in the French region of Bretagne. Every stage followed a very similar format with a big road loop followed by 8 laps of a local circuit.

Typically involving tough wee climbs. It wasn’t that the climbs were particularly steep or long, it was just the pace that they were raced and the constant repetition of up and down that made the race both physically and mentally hard. The style of racing was also something I hadn’t experienced before. The race would be very fast for the first hour or so.. a break away would escape and built up huge lead. The in the last couple of hours the pace would up again and the break away would be bought back very quickly – even if the gap was out to 10minutes. My expectations of the tour being a nice 4 days in the sun with some fast racing, hurt my chances of a good result, as the race was almost the complete opposite. I made it to the 3^rd day, in which the rain came down very hard, all day!

The two days before I had put myself on the limit for a long time, and on the third day my body just could not handle it. The intensity of the racing was much harder than usual. Averaging over 300watts for over 4 hours. It was the first tour that I wasn’t able to finish for the year.
Shane was able to get up for the final day and win the final stage, which let the team finish on a high.

My first Kermesse win in Schaffen. Myron won this same race last year, where I also placed third. In 2004 this was the same race Mark Cavendish won that started his international career. I was actually fairly lucky to just ride this race as I had some 1 minute efforts to do on the track on my program. I managed to ride out to the track and do the efforts, then came home and decided that I was also going to race with the boys. Before I had started the race I already had 60km on the clock. The four of us rode in the race. We rode it to perfection. It all started quite rapidly, and I wasn’t sure if we were going to be able to persuade the bunch to let us go. After about 40mins the various signs of fatigue started showing around the bunch. A small group was just up the road, and I was able to get up and rocket across to them, only to look back and see Gatey, Sancho and Novie flying across to me with half a dozen Belgies in tow. There was no looking back as we went full gas to establish a gap. After we had the gap it all calmed down, and we kept lapping with the group. Nothing happened until about 5 laps to go of the 8km circuit when we could see another group our size coming across the gap. We didn’t want them there, so we told the Belgies with us it was time to pull hard for a lap. This finished the weaker riders in our group and also helped to get the gap back out away from the group behind.

Novie was the first to attack the group, I followed him less than a minute later, then Gatey also followed me soon after. We got together and rode 3 up for the last two laps. The boys allowed me to take the win, it was a good feeling going across the line with my hands in the air. In the end we put 4 and a half minutes into the peleton. To top it all off Sancho also took 4^th so it was 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th for the kiwis, an awesome result.

Tour of Murray River, the final race of our campaign. It was all finished up a couple of days ago. The tour, if you didn’t guess it already, the race followed the Murray River all the way up to Mildura. The tour being 8 days, was quite long to finish our road season, even though it was only 850km in total. The typical day would involve a 30km criterium with a 80 or 90km road stage in the afternoon. Not a huge deal coming off the season we have done, but when you add in sprints every 2^nd lap of each criterium, accelerations out of corners and plenty of sprints out in the road stages, you have actually got a fairly demanding tour. We had a fun management team with Gordon McCauley, Johnny Dam, Felix Laufkotter, Nick the masseuse and Gouds. We had plenty of laughs the whole week. I don’t think I have been in tears so often!
The team had a good day winning two of two stages on the second stage, things went downhill from there as we lost Myron to a chest infection midway through and Shane had a sore gut for the majority of the tour. We were always able to come around every other team to start a lead out train in the last 3km or so, but didn’t quite have the firepower to follow that up. Our lead out train worked well on the tight crit circuits. All and all I had a good time, and I am sure the training effect from the tour will be well worth the effort.

Now I am back in NZ I will be sorting everything out starting with a rest week off the bike. Seeing my all my family and friends. Gathering all my equipment to the same place! All in preparation for the track camp in October and the Omnium nationals.

Update..

2011-08-07T08:16:00.000-07:00

After Germany and exams. I had a long break from writing in here, also the fact that I have broken my laptop and my only chance to get on here is when I borrow one of the guys.

So lately, I finished Germany, Exams went well, even though the motivation to do them was quite low. I went on my mini 'OE' to see family in Poland, and interesting and culturally rich experience. I saw Krakow, Warsaw Kielce. I met my second cousin, distant aunties and their friends and family. we visited the infamous, Auschwitz. we also visited a Salt mine and all over the city in Krakow.
In the process of being over there with combined lack of sleep and exercise, I think my body just got tied up and sick. I was looking forward to going back to belgium and getting right. Its hard not to call our wee house in Blauberg home now after so many trips away from and back to.
The trip to Poland has now sealed my nickname with the guys as Poland.

Following that we had a bit of downtime staying in Belgium before our team camp in Aigle, Switzerland that lasted 3 and a half weeks. A period I was really looking forward to as I had visited the same area in preparation for junior worlds two years ago as a sprinter. Now as an endurance rider I was given free reign to explore the various passes and col's in the area. Three big weeks of training including track and gym work and I have never felt better.
If you are looking for a good place to ride your bike, the swiss alps, especially the area around aigle is definitely up there! A highlight of the camp was driving up 1500m to a tunnel through the side of a cliff face late at night, then setting off a sky rocket out of one of the side holes to celebrate Myron's 21st.

Getting back to belgium was once again 'homely' even though the nice weather we had left behind had changed to dull grey skys and rain most days. The juniors prepping for worlds had also been at the house.
I had a run in with fate a few days ago when I tried to race a kermesse. I had forgotten my letter from bikenz to give to the organisers allowing me to race. Only a couple of times last year had I had to present the papers so I had completely forgotten how crucial they are if you run into a strict race organiser. There was nothing I could do about it so I started to ride home, deciding to go a slightly longer and different way, to the way we came.
I came up to a T intersection with a line of traffic on my left and a side road just before the intersection to the right. A gap was left in the line for a car to get on the side road. The timing was perfect - for an accident to happen. I hit square on the front right bumper of the sedan and rolled over the bonnet into a pole. I was up so fast, I'm still not sure if I hit the ground. before I had even looked I knew my bike was going to be absolutely destroyed. Fortunately for me an ambulance was in the line up to the T intersection so they gave a good witness statement to the police. There a severe penalties for drivers if they hit a cyclist on a bike path.. Luckily for me I was on that bike path, so full insurance. As far as injury goes, I could not have come off any better. I bruised my shin and got a small track like burn from the car on my elbow about the size of a 10c piece, I was lucky.
The next day I sorted a new bike from one of our spares. a 58cm trek was there, that I almost changed to at the start of the year. After a few groggy and sore days on the bike, its started to become natural and actually feels much better than my old one.

So yesterday the whole team decided to race a kermesse near Mechelen in Heffen,
it was a 4km circuit 28 times 7 sharp corners every lap = 196 guarantee accelerations!..a couple of breaks went in the 2nd lap and I was near the front and managed to rocket across to the first one without taking anyone with me. So there was 10 riders in the break together. The other 3 kiwis missed it. The gap went out to a minute very quick . Then I heard that they were bridging about 10 laps later and they bought one belgy with them. after they got up to the break, it was all go. I saved as much energy as I could. Waiting for the next stage in the race. There were money primes every lap so we let one of the 4 of us get away on the last corner for every sprint. Then with 4 to go Myron went for one and stayed away and one belgy went with him. Then Gatey and another belgy went across to them. They lapped it out and got a good gap on me and novie with about 6 other belgies left. Then after me and novie followed the moves of belgies within our group, I was lucky and got away with a couple of belgys. I helped a little but didnt panic as Gatey and Sancho were up there and I didn't want to tow an extra two riders to threaten the win. I saw Sancho hit them and go solo with a lap to go so I worked hard to get to the front then. We got to the front with half a lap to go . I stayed near the back and launched with 300 or more to go just at the perfect time. I gapped the group. Gatey stayed on the front for 3rd. 1-2-3 and a majority of the primes, KIWI domination.

To finish the night we went and saw the NZ rowing team at their hotel in Mechelen, they came out to watch the race as the course went right next to the lake where the are training at. They are two weeks away from their world champs.

Coming up:

Mi Aout Bretane. A 4 day stage race in france. which starts on the 11th.

a short period in Belgium again.

Flight to Australia via Nz on the 23rd. Then racing the Tour of Murray river in Australia
from the 28th-4th. an 8 day 15 stage race.

Keep in touch,

Cam

Germany - Thueringen Rundfahrt U23

2011-06-20T08:10:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've left something here..
Last week the team had a 7 day stage race called the Thueringen - Rundfarht.
Unlike Ireland I opted, instead of writing a blow by blow account of the race, to study for my uni exams being held in the coming days.
The race was held in the alpine German region of Thueringen. Our team, along with many others were based in the peaceful town of Oberhof, famous for the Ski jump and Luge just down the road. We were holed up in a chalet for the whole week. The town and chalet had a laid back feeling similiar to Wanaka, it was choice.
The race is a rather big affair and is a part of the UCI europe tour for U23's, and is always hotly contested with the winner of the race typically gaining a pro-tour contract for the next year.
Our team for the race was mostly track riders with Tom Scully, Shane Archbold, Aaron Gate, Myron Simpson, Jason Christie and Myself taking part in the race.
There are so many memories that I would love to just write down quickly, but there are just to many! - i'll try keep it short.

Day one. The teams ambition and morale was fairly high, everyone was coming into the tour with a victory or two or atleast some good form. The day was bloody hectic for me! right before the crucial 9km climb - halfway into the stage, a rider must have driven his skewer right through my rear wheel, breaking a couple of spokes and making it near impossible to keep riding, I had to pull over and get a wheel change. Wheel changed, no drama. I descended a tight and twisty road way to fast for comfort and nearly managed to put myself under the NZ team car. I caught the back of the bunch as we started the long climb of the day, only to realise I was pumping out some watts with my breaks rubbing on the wide Zipp 303. Novie was calm enough to come back and adjust it free on the earlier slopes of the climb. It wasn't long before the exerted effort at the bottom came back to haunt me about a third of the way up the hill. I lost complete contact with the bunch and then by the top of the climb, even the race convoy. Boom, race over.. or so I thought. I kept trucking away for the next 20km on my own, waiting for the broom wagon or until I reached the feed zone - so I could stop. I'm glad I didn't though, because soon enough, there was Stu in the trusty Skoda. I was told I was about 5minutes down on the bunch. A bike fix, some drafting and a sticky bottle or 2 later, I was flying to the back of the bunch. Phew. what a relief, back in the race. The incident was enough to blow my confidence of my own form and soon realised that some of the others, were also facing some of their own realities. Day one finished with 3 finishing circuits of a steep climb and a partially cobbled descent. I was quick to go backwards with one of the last groups, knowing I was then safe from the 20% time cut.

Day two was a team time trial, we were all pretty g'd up to go well in this considering it was one of our best chances in the tour, suitable to track abilities. We had recon'd the dangerous course in the days before. I was quite anxious due to a few of corners entry speed, angle, and objects on the side of the road - in the dry. Luck was not ours on the day and we had a soaking wet run - which slowed us down considerably. I shot myself in the foot by wearing a visor on the aero helmet. Made things very hard for myself in the wet. I was blind as a bat, due to 1, the steam fogging up the inside of the visor and 2 the water being flicked up from the wheel infront of me, to the outside of the visor. I could not see a thing on the dodgiest part of the course. I used up precious energy by dangling to far away from the wheel in front of me. We hit quite a steep climb with about 4km to the finish and I just could not push any more. My muscles and lungs were absolutely screaming. The guys held it together and still managed to average 50kmph for the 22km course. If it were dry, Id say that we would have gone considerably faster.
That night I had to face the fact that I was not feeling as good as I was in Ireland, and had to accept that my body might just be reaching that point of fatigue you may get after 19 race days in 34 days. I thought I was about to enter the pain cave without a flashlight in the next few days.

Day 3 was what you'd call an in between day. The team had reached a low point after striking out in the ttt, and Novie was having some extremely bad luck, (maybe due to purposely spilling salt all over the buffet table) he had an anaphylactic shock after the time trial, which in turn helped caused him to crash and smash his helmet during the stage. This left the team with a feeling of being almost... ah leaderless? The stage was relatively flat and uneventful. I was glad to start feeling the numbness of racing entering my legs once again. I avoided a few crashes on surprise cobbles featuring in the two lap finishing circuit. I tried to work my way up the bunch to mix it up in a technical bunch sprint, I didn't get on the right trains and only managed to take 19th. The day seemed to pass very quickly. It was quite disappointing for the team as with a couple more riders up near the front and a bit of luck, im sure it was a stage any of us could have done well in.

Day 4 was a day I was worried about. Worried about finishing within the time limit I should say. The course was only 145km but it featured a shit load of climbing towards the end of the stage and a couple of short 3-4km ramps in the middle stages. I kept my cool, always trying to work my way up the bunch with the thought that if I could get through today, I can do the hill time trial tomorrow, and atleast make it to day 6. I managed to get over the smaller climbs midway through the stage and was on the back of the bunch starting the 1st of a final 3 climbs to the finish. It was hills with lengths of 8km - 3km -7km until the finish. I for filled my own prediction by surviving with the bunch until 110km had passed. I was quite lucky that it was hard enough for a large groupetto to form. the group of 20 or so cruised to the finish and lost a massive 17minutes to the winner. It was after this day I was about 7th last on GC -105th place only 8 riders had pulled out so far.

Day 5 was the hill time trial, funnily enough I was looking forward to the 12km uphill effort. I, like many others even opted to ride full time trial gear. I rode at a fairly solid tempo the whole way up, to ensure I wasn't eliminated by a 20% time cut. After absolutely creeping the last km of the tt on a steep climb I finished at around my GC position, and would have been safe if the organisers wanted a time cut. A very short day was good for the head and body. The next two days held a lot of effort.

Day 6 was the "queen" stage of the tour. 193km race, a loop that I would almost certainly never attempt out training. The steep hills came early, then a short rest until 50km in, then all hell broke lose on the altitude charts, after big long 8km, descend, steep 4km, descend, climb, descend, I can't even remember really. It was a day I had to get in the right head space for. I had to treat it although it was the last day of the tour. I had to be ready to fight. all. day. and I did. I exceeded my own expectations and held on until 25km to go, till the legs had had enough and were sick of the countless bursts of energy. I was yet again, with the groupetto, safe from the blade of the time cut. a 200km day done. One day to go.

Day 7 was not what I expected it to be. It was a showdown. Held on a 5 lap course totaling 166km. By this stage the team was trying to set Gatey up for the green sprints jersey. The race was made difficult when an austrian contender for the jersey attacked and stole away from the bunch with two others, a gutsy move, it paid off as he took maximum points, while the green jersey and Gatey scored none. The race was made by the wind and a steep 1.5km climb just after the finish line each lap. If I were to finish this tour I was going to have to haul myself over this climb 4 times and withstand 5 passes of the crosswind sections. Once again I had to fight and fight and fight for position, so I wouldn't be included in the groups that would get piped on every lap of the climb and crosswinds. I was not so sure of myself with two laps to go(66km) of the race. All I wanted was to finish, for the pain to stop, to pull-out though for me, would feel like the last 6 days had been a waste. To make things easier on myself I had to atleast make it with the bunch to the bottom of the last climb on the last lap with 30km to go. I managed to complete this task, then pushed myself to go further. Fireworks went down on the front of the bunch up the last climb. I had to exert everything and more to hold on. Setting a new 5min PB power along the way. I was in a bad state after the top and was glad to receive a bit of respite in the headwind.
Entering the crosswind stage with only 15km to go, I would have been happy to sit up and roll to the finish. But, I challenged myself a little more, just a bit further... Things split up big time, but did manage to come back together. With 10km to go I had nothing to lose, as I had nothing left in the legs and moved on up the bunch. A quick section before the climb to the finish and I was in a very good position, hovering around 10th wheel. thinking, "how the hell did I get here so easily". With 500m to go on the uphill finish I was still in a good place, but made the terrible choice of 'stepping out'. I went with 400 to go and had absolutely nothing. Haha. almost makes me laugh, I somehow managed to lose 23seconds in 400meters.. I rolled to our team zone and lay on the grass, taking my helmet and shades off, absolutely wrecked, maybe even shell shocked??. Head and heart absolutely thumping. Tour complete. I ended up in 2nd last position - 77th, 41minutes down on the winner. 42 riders did not finish.

3658 raced kilometers for me so far this campaign.
A well deserved two week break is next on the agenda for me. First I tackle these two exams in the coming days, then I head off to Poland to meet some relatives for a week. Following this, a short stint in Blauberg, then off to Aigle Switzerland for a good block of road training with a little bit of track. I'm looking forward to it!
Hope you enjoyed the read,
Cam

Heaps of photos from throughout the tour.. Just scroll down.

Day Eight Ireland

2011-05-30T09:25:00.000-07:00

Day 8

Last day, a quick 133km dash, back to the coast near Dublin in a small town called Skerries. This would complete our massive circle of the ireland. The plan today was to look after Gatey for the U23 jersey and seal up Novies green jersey by him having a good finish. He only had a 4 point advantage over the Yellow jersey of Bagdonas heading into the last stage. Meaning that he could only finish 4 places behind him on the finish line. A little bit of pressure considering that Bagdonas had proven to be a very strong sprinter. To relieve a bit of that pressure we had talked to An post
the night before and come to some sort of agreement. We just had to offer them support if they needed it. So for the first 30km of the stage I stayed up the front with An post, pulling laps and closing gaps. It was pretty tough work, after 6 days of doing it, it was clear the team needed a bit of help. The stage was quick with a mostly tailwind, a couple of sections of crosswind kept the bunch alert. For a lot of the rolling and twisty stage I sat mid pack and just watched the kms tick by. We had a couple of cat 3 climbs but nothing major, the legs were surprisingly good after such a long week. The pace remained quite high, averaging over 48kmph for most of the stage. The stage and tour finished with two 16km local laps. The lap went past the finish line, then up a short steep climb for less then a km, then carried on dragging up along a ridge. Finishing with a fast crosswind then tailwind back down the hill into Skerries. There were a few corners in the last 2km. This was the most crucial part of the stage for both Novie and Gatey. A small break was allowed a free reign to get 3mins up the road, just two riders. We hit the first lap and both me and Novie were already in a good position in the bunch. Barging around to stay in the top 15 wheels. We went over the first climb, it was tough, but not to bad. Most of the bunch stayed together. I stayed near the bunch and Novie was a few wheels back. Gatey had some very bad timing on the last lap to puncture and their was a bit of panic for him to get back to the bunch before the final climb. Me and novie were in a good spot just before the last climb. This is where the last of the attacks were laid down, It split the bunch to pieces. I was in between a front bunch of ten and a group novie was on the front of, I slowed up to give Novie some help across to the front, just in case it stayed away. I ended up being last wheel over the climb. There was still a split but it managed to come back together. 8Km to go from the top. I saw Novie was unsupported up the front and was boxed in. Gatey and Myron were struggling to move up the bunch in the fast crosswind section, after gateys puncture. I waited until the pace eased off so I could quickly move up the side to the front. I was lucky with my timing and the side of the bunch I choose. With 4km to go I had moved up the side. Novie was stuck about 20^th wheel with Bagdonas sitting pretty around 5^th wheel. With 2km to go, I was with Novie, stuck in the middle of the bunch. He was yelling at me to get out and go, get up. We went under a tunnel with just over a km to go, A hole open up to the front. I took the opportunity, made sure Novie was still with me, we got out of there like a burning house with about 1.2km to travel. I had to drill it through the last off the corners at over 60, coming round the last corner with 400 to go I had Novie still behind me. I stood up to sprint for the last time fighting the pain and trying to maintain the speed. Novie flew past me with 300 to go and took the bunch sprint. A sole rider of the break managed to hold onto a 8second lead. Another 2^nd, the green jersey was ours!
Gatey rolled in and still had the U23 jersey sewn up.
A good day! Finally finished.
We finished the 133km stage in just under 3hours. A 44.5kmph average. 267Watts, 325normalized.
I finished the tour in 31st on GC, and still 7th on U23.
Time for some rest before we built back up to our next big stage race. A 6 day tour in Germany in a couple of weeks time.

Day Seven Ireland

2011-05-30T08:36:00.000-07:00

Day 7

Today we had a 164km stage with a couple of climbs along the way. Overcast day, but quite warm. A good tailwind to assist the race. We started the race where it finished the previous day and had a 5km neutral section before racing got underway. The race started quite slow, then after a couple of minutes a few attacks started. Novie got amongst it and put in a solid move with a couple of riders which was unanswered by the bunch. A couple more riders followed and a break of 7 was established. This was the break of the day, as it quickly got out to 4minutes. This put stress on the yellow jersey team of An post. Novie was virtual leader on the road, as he was only 1m20 down on the leader at the start of the day. The bunch hit the first climb of the day, a category 2, about 3.5km long. An post drove it up the climb in chase of Novies break. This split the bunch quite considerably, about ½ the field got dropped over the climb. The chase was on between climbs for the next 70km. An post stayed on the front and had it wound for a very long time. The gap would hardly budge, which was a good indicator of how hard the break was working. For the first time in the tour some sort of order was arranged with the layout of the bunch. Many teams bustled for position and finally teams lined up in order behind An post. No one would help the chase. After a successful feed, Me, gatey and myron went and lined up. Just in time, as a crash halted the last third of the bunch. The bunch then lined up for the Category 1 climb of the day. A 6km drag up to the top of a ridge. The pressure was on, the field split up considerably. I went backwards, but kept on tapping away on the pedals. I stayed between two small bunches before being joined by the bunch behind at the top. Luckily the team cars were fairly close and had not left a gap. There were not many cars left in the convoy so I was lucky this time! After leapfrogging my way back to the bunch we covered some more smaller climbs then settled back into a rhythm. The gap remained at 1m30 with 50km to ride. We caught up with Novie with 25km to go as the gap was slowly chased back. As soon as Novie was captured a free reign was given to the survivors of the break. We then built up to the sprint with a few sprinting teams sending riders up to work. With about 2km to travel I had Gatey and Myron on my wheel for the sprint. I hit a pothole and waited for the bang of the tire. I was lucky not to puncture. The yellow jersey flatted right in front of me. A young guy just iin front of Gatey hit the deck, Luckily falling left onto the side of the road instead of the bunch. I heard the crunch and glanced back to see him breakdancing in the gravel at 60kmph. I took over with 800 to go with just myron on my wheel. I pulled off with 300 to let myron sprint. It was a long 300m drag to the finish. A lone survivor from the break pulled off the win, while Myron held on for 4^th.
Quite a tough day today. Lets not feeling to bad for the 7^th day of the tour. For the 164km stage we averaged 43kmph, it took us 3hours40min. 257Watts normalized at 315w.
Last day tomorrow, woo hoo. At the moment I am 32^nd on GC about 28minutes down. I am also 7^th in the U23 section.

Ireland Day 6

2011-05-27T13:53:00.000-07:00

Day Six

The day began in Blarney with a clear still and sunny morning. Unfortunately, this didn't last long at all and soon clouds filled the sky, and a cold breeze started blowing. We got sorted in the hotel before riding down the hill back to Blarney. A long stage today, 172km to the seaside village of Tramore. The race started after a ridiculously long neutral zone. We were on a double carriageway for about 20km in a fast tailwind. Nothing was getting away, no matter how many attempts were made. After some tight and rolly roads the peleton was completely stretched, large groups kept managing to get off the front. An post were once again, driving it to keep the peleton back together. The pace was very rarely under 50kmph. The pace was still being driven after 70km, even when many teams tried to force a break with a piss stop. As soon as they called it, another couple of riders tried to sprint off the front. No one was happy about it. Up one of the 2^nd Cat climbs about 100km in, a large split happened about 20^th wheel, As soon as the peleton realised there was a gap, it was all on. Novie and Gatey managed to rocket across the gap to save their GC position. I rode to the front of the peleton at a good pace, but less than the pace I knew the front would going. I then called a piss stop, this time most of the riders actually stopped when the call was made. This cemented the break. After this, the race was uneventfull. It was almost like the peleton became the grupetto. After a successful feed many of the county riders, or B grade teams started racing again. They have some sort of classment within the race. Frustrating, as it went back to many riders attacking unnecessarily. It almost seemed like they had forgotten that there was a break up the road. After getting sick of this for about 10km, I went to the front and was joking round with Myron. Watching as all the county riders were flogging themselves in ones and twos going off the front. I accidently followed a move that went off the front and caused a gap! I didn't pull a lap with the county riders as there was no point in wasting the energy. After a little while about 20 riders were collected into one group. Peleton out of sight. I sat near the back doing nothing, almost laughing at the guys yelling to the front to pull. They must have thought they were going to ride across to the break haha. After hitting many more short and steep cat 3's there were, unfortunately only 3 riders left. The rest of the county riders had completely blown themselves up. We still had 20km of twisty narrow roads before the finish. 10, 5, 4, 3, 2 1km to go. All went very quickly on the tailwind road. Actually was quite fun, the legs were to fatigued after quite a long ride. A short steep 500m to the finish and the stage was done. Novie had claimed 9^th in the stage and Gatey was also still in the white u23 jersey. Two more days, just under 300km of race tomorrow. Tomorrow has some big climbs so expecting a tough day.
Today my SRM wasn't reading right, so no data. We did average 44kmph for 172km though.
Tonight we are staying in the Tramore Grand Hotel, A cool old building on the hill above the seaside village. From my room I can see a huge sweeping sandy beach and a big lagoon just behind it.

Day Five Ireland

2011-05-26T14:16:00.001-07:00

Day 5.

After staying the night at the hobbit house B&B, the team had breakfast, Teddy the owner had a few good yarns, even though he was very hard to understand. A long drive in back to the start town of Castletownbere, we got set up in the car park with all the other teams. Another dreary day, a cold blustery wind was whipping around the bay. Even so often the rain would start and stop again. Today was the first day I had a warmup, I needed it. Once the race started I felt pretty good, I followed a couple of moves and tried to force a break after a small group got a gap. We chased after another small group over a couple of the early category 3 climbs. It was soon obvious that the bunch wouldn't let us get a gap as they were chasing hard on our tail. The An post team was working hard to keep things together. They made it tough for the rest of the bunch over the following category 3's. We sped through a couple of small towns, then hit a sizeable length of fast cross/tailwind section. This stretched the bunch into one long line and caused a huge split halfway down the bunch. I was lucky to be about 30^th wheel hanging in the gutter, dodging potholes at 65kmph. Dream had to pull the pin at this point with a sore knee. It came back together after the front bunch eased up. This was after about 2hours of the race. The pace slowed up, then a couple of riders hit off the front of the bunch. Myron went off in hot pursuit and they formed a bunch. The pace stayed steady at the front with An post doing the work, but the break of 6 still managed to quickly reel out to over 4mins advantage. Before the finish there were two cat 2 climbs in quick succession, both about 4-5km long. The pace wasn't very quick and the bunch more or less stuck together. The breaks advantage started wearing down quite rapidly. Over the last climb with 25km to go the break was only 1min30s. All I was thinking was, go sancho go. The bunch kept on powering down the descent and through many of the tight lanes towards Blarney. The breaks gap was lessening for every minute we raced. They only had 50seconds with 10km to go. I stayed with Novie and Gatey towards the end, moving them up into a good position for a leadout. We still had to sprint for Novies points jersey, even if he couldn't go for the win. It was fairly hairy for a few km, lots of bustling and jostling for position against some of the other european teams. With 3km to go we could see Sancho's break on a long straight. With a km to go I got past the front and ramped it up with the boys on my wheel, I took it to 60kmph just before 300m to go, swinging over to let Gatey and Novie take 6^th and 7^th. Myron had successfully attacked the break with 3km to go and had won solo by 4 seconds to the bunch. Great success! 3 kiwis on the podium, Novie in Green, Gatey in the white u23 leaders jersey..
155Km in 3hr42m. 263Watts normalized at 316watts. Tomorrow we start next to the Blarney castle. Won't get a chance to kiss the Blarney stone. Day six tomorrow. Time is flying!

Day Four Ireland

2011-05-26T14:11:00.000-07:00

Day 4

Today we woke up to the sound of wind and rain battering the hotel. A familiar sound/sight. A big breakfast, then we rolled down to the start town. It was bloody freezing, gusty and the rain had the ocasional downpoor. Looking at what all the riders were wearing at the sign on, it was clear no one wanted to get cold. The team wore lots of kit, there is nothing worse than racing and being absolutely freezing at the same time. So the race got underway and just like usual, almost every rider is wanting to get up the road. It was a quick start, with some short wee bumps in the road with the bunch strung out for an extended period of time. A group of 6 still managed to get away. The peleton never eased up though, many people seemed to forget about the break up the road and tried to form another break. The route tic-tac'd back towards the coast, just so the wind direction was always slightly awkward and the bunch was always slightly in the gutter. Not enough to split the race though. After about 60km of racing, we entered the coastal sort of area once again, and were racing under the cover of native bush snaking roads, very similar to the Kenepuru sounds in Marlborough. Not that I had time to look around every 5 seconds but the few glimpse's of the surroundings I got, I saw huge mountains, lakes, everything. After 70km we hit a couple of Cat 2 climbs in quick sucession, totalling 7km. It was quite easy up the first climb as we snaked along the roads under cover of the trees, we then came to a plateau at the top, greeted by a torrential rain and very gutsy wind, due to the lake next to the road. Soon, we saw the next section of the climb running up the side of a mountain to meet the saddle in the distance. It looked quite similar to the ride to Glenorchy from Queenstown, Or even the road to Haast pass from Wanaka, just more exposed and rugged. After a long descent we arrived at the bottom of another valley and started making our way up to the next sections of climbs, by now the pace was starting to heat up, the Yellow Jersey was very very active, chasing anything and everything that tried to go up the road. Even if they weren't a GC threat. Bit like firing from the hip, gung-ho warrior, wastefull and reckless.

After 100km the road started going slightly uphill, and stayed that way for a while, a couple of GC teams lined the peleton out completely and after a couple of minutes on the climb, splits were appearing everywhere. I just happened to be two or three wheels to far back as guys in front of me just dropped the wheel, and pulled over to let me through. I saw the top of the saddle and the peleton just started sneaking away from me, 20meters, 30meters, 50meters. I looked back to see ones and twos, I had to make it back to the group. After a quick we sprint to the top of the climb and down the first part of the descent I was back. I tried to work my way forward in anticipation for the next climb, a Cat 1, called the Healy Pass (look it up on google). The descent off the climb was quite dodgy, with a wall of bush as the side of the road, and gravel littering the unused sections of tarseal. In a seemingly minimal amount of time we were already at the bottom of the Healy Pass. The climb started in the cover of bush and slowly the road became barer and more exposed the higher we climbed. I was last wheel on the bunch, giving it as much as I could to stay there, because the sooner I let go, the sooner I would be riding to the finish in a small group. After about half the climb, I could not hang on any longer and made the smooth transition from riding at the max, to riding at my own limit. Allowing myself enough gas to get to the top!I hung around the team cars for a short period, then started riding with an An post rider. We got to the top with some of the last team cars. The climb was pretty brutal, like a narrower version of coronet peak, only 6km long though. There was a small grass verge and stones following the climb the whole way up, looking over the edge you would see the valley floor bellow. Cresting the climb, I was still with the An post rider, I looked over the other side of the saddle to see the front bunch carearing its way down the switchbacks, It was like a birds-eye view of a go kart track. Absolutely crazy, to make matters worse the wind and rain were still howling and pooring, It did all stage. I struggled to see the corners with my glasses on, all fogged up and wet. But without them the rain would blind me. I couldn't follow the An post rider through many of the U turns. Poor cambered corners and oil slicks on the road didn't help at all. I had the sensation that I was riding on ice. Every second corner it seemed, there was a rider from the front bunch sitting on the side on the road, obviously having pushed the boundary to far. I every caught up with the An post guy, who had managed to stay with the team cars and then bin it on a corner to slide his front wheel under a team car. I got caught by another rider on the decent as we hit the bottom of the descent, we took it very easy.. I averaged about 40kmph on the downhill! I started riding with this guy, we had a quick chat and waited for a group to catch us. I had about 2minutes with the group until I heard the loud bang of my front tire exhausting its air. I hoped like hell it wasn't mine. Luckily a team car was following us and gave me a spare wheel. They took way to long on the wheel, and left me about a minute behind my group. They also weren't keen on giving me a motor pace.! Argh. I couldn't see a group behind me, so I just rode the 15km to the finish by myself, eventually finishing only about a minute ahead of a huge bunch.

I heard the news of how we had done up the road with Gatey and Novie in the mix, Novie got a leadout from Gatey for an agonising 2^nd, and Gatey hung on for 7^th.

For the day I averaged 266watts, Normalised at 315. 142km in 3hr54m.
Today was the hump day, we are halfway through the tour. Tonight we are staying in an extremely remote B&B right on the coast at the extreme bottom of Ireland. The Atlantic oceania is litterly 100meters away banging against the cliff we are staying on. I can hear the wind absolutely roaring outside, and showers keep battering the house. I feel like I'm on the edge of the world. Tomorrow is fast approaching, day five is next. Tick tock.

Day Tree Ireland

2011-05-26T14:10:00.000-07:00

Day 3

After waking up to a slightly warmer and less windy day, we discussed the team plan for the day. We decided that we would not defend the jersey for Novie as we are so early into the tour, and we only have 5 riders. There was only 23 riders within striking distance of yellow, and all but 2 of the were 1m30 down. The course today looked like a big U, once again following the coast.
Climbs in the last 30km of 175km in total. There was a 40km tail/side to start the race, so many attacks were attempted, just because of how fast it was. Nothing got away though. There was a break of 6 that would have been perfect to stay away as they would have probably fizzled out later in the race, but wasn't meant to be. We covered the first 50km in just over an hour. We then turned right and it was gutter time for most of the bunch. It was then the break that stuck got away. 17 riders in total snuck away on a big open double lane. I was on the front as it happened, and was glad to see Gatey jump in the move, meaning we would have the excuse of not chasing the bunch, as Gatey was our next highest on GC. The peleton then mucked around for a good hour, just cruizing, taking a natural break etc. Unlike the previous day the race actually was going rather quickly. After 90km of racing the Irish national team and a couple of other teams sent riders up to the front to chase down the break of 17 riders. Which by then had over 7minutes advantage! Our team was able to sit up the front together with Novie in the yellow. It stayed like this for the rest of the race. We chewed up some climbs and apparently we rode past some amazing scenery. One finishing circuit with a Cat 1 climb chucked in with 8km to go. It was only about 2km, but it almost went straight up , and maxed out at 18%. I quickly went from right up the front to the back of the bunch. I ended up finishing with the back half of the peleton. Luckily for me I was not one of the 60 or so riders that lost 36minutes on the stage.. Some have already lost 1hr30m. The day seemed to pass very quickly, for a long distance. It took us 4hr17min for the 175km average 40.8kmph. 252Watts normalized at 305.
Sorry I can't go into to much detail as I seem to be running out of minutes in my day, hopefully I will get some photos from some one after the tour has finished.
Tomorrow we follow the coast to the furtherest point on the Island, only 140 or so km. We still have the U23 jersey with Gatey and Points jersey with Novie.

Day Two Ireland

2011-05-23T13:37:00.001-07:00

Day 2..

Massive day today! Plenty of stuff to write about. We kitted up and signed in at the hotel we stayed at the night before. We hopped back out of bed in our kit and rolled around the corner to see the bunch pulling out of the hotel.! We did a short local neutralised lap before pulling up outside of the hotel again. Just as we got underway the rain came down again. Not many orders today, just stay near the front as a unit. It was quite cold, gusty and drizzly, the forecast was for lots of wind. I saw a break establishing itself very early into the race. I liked the look of it and went full gas and saw I had no one on my wheel. It was a massive pull to get there, but once I was there it was all go.
Slogging away into a very gusty and strong headwind,fairly soon we had 40secs, then 1min, then after about an hour of riding, the 8 of us had an advantage just over 3min. The break was working very well together. It was tough work into the headwind! In quick succession about 3 of the riders in the break dropped away. Leaving four of us working, and a 5th rider sitting on us that probably weighed more than 100 kilo, so we didn't expect him to do much. Soon enough he was swinging on and off the back on the short climbs. On the feature 3km climb of the day 90km in, we had dropped him completely. But somehow, after the plateau on the top he caught back up.. must have been getting a motorpace. So after 3 hours up the road we had only cover 100km into the headwind. Hard work, very slow and demoralising work knowing that you have so much further to go, and that the bunch could probably eat us up whenever they choose. Soon enough the team cars were pulled and we could see the bunch pulling up to us, 110km up the road, 3 and a half hours later. I was fairly tweeked with 50km to ride. As soon as the bunch caught us, the smack went down.. Everyone was having a go off the front in the crosswinds. Novie, Gatey and Myron managed to get into the move of about 20 riders that snuck up the road in small groups. Me and Dream stayed in the remaining bunch. I had to force myself to eat and drink everything I had on me as I counted down the kms to the finish. I also had to keep working as we had a solid 30kms of crosswind, as we were riding paralell to the coast. 30Kms, 20kms, 10kms, 5kms. It took so long. I have to also give mention to the state of the roads here. Absolutely terrible, almost like a cobble section in places, so much patchwork! Today actually looked and felt a lot like the stretch of road between Tuatapere and riverton.
I rolled in 10mins down on the front. Not having any idea what had gone on up the road. Myron got up for 7th. Novie went animal on it, and had gotten himself into 3up break not long before the finish. They pulled 1m30 on the bunch by the end! He was unfortunate to take 2nd, He also took the yellow jersey...
Ended up doing the 164km journey in 5hr5min.. Thats slow, 32.1kmph. With the break I averaged 280watts, normalized at 310...rough day.
Tonight we are staying in an amazing hotel called the Armada, right on the coast, with amazing veiws of a huge bay.
Tommorrow, the longest day of the tour at 177km following the coast south, defending the yellow. Bring it on..

Day One Ireland

2011-05-23T13:31:00.000-07:00

Day 1

The day started with a buffet breakfast in Dunboyne castle. Outside the weather did not look promising at all. Patchy rain clouds, drizzle and wind, quite cool as well. All good though.
The goal for the day was to set Novie up for the stage win, with a leadout in mind. 147Km straight across the island, finishing almost dead in the center.
We started in the center of Dunboyne, a small town on the edge of Dublin. There was a sizable crowd lining the street and an announcer that was doing a great job at amping things up. We got all sorted for the stage in a small car park. Not to sure what to wear as we were having such a mixed bag of weather. We lined up as 2^nd team behind the irish national team in the middle of the street. Everyone was shaking and shivering as we waited for the start. After a short neutral lap back through the town and we were underway. Just as we started, it began bucketing down. I stayed up near the front and was actively following moves. I was running my new mavic tubular r cys wheels as well. The tires that came with them are not to good as I very nearly came down on an easy corner. I had to run it straight into the bank to prevent myself from sliding along the ground. After this wee incident the race carried on and attack after attack were attempted, none were successful. Mid way through there was a big split in a crosswind, some one close to the front dropped a wheel, it caught most of the team off guard. It came back together easily enough though. Soon after this a big break with lots of teams represented managed to sail off up the road. The gap went out to about 2mins before a team got on the front and started trying to pull them back. I thought it was going to be race over, but soon enough we had the break back in sight. 40Km to go and everything was together again. It went back to being an attack game again, many tried, but all were brought back, much to close to the end of the stage to let a break go. The whole team was then together at the front ready for a leadout with less than 15km to ride. Something was happening up the front with motorbike coms trying to wave us down, pretty soon we were stopped. Wondering why this was, I turned around to see that there was about 30 riders left. A crash had happened, that had completely blocked the road. Everything was stopped until all the riders had caught back up. 5Km to go, we waited for about 5mins. No one was happy about the decision, except for the riders that caught back up, making the most of it, by pushing up to the front.
We got started again and it was completely swamped with riders that had gone out the ass. Everyone in the team was split up and had to get back together quickly. We hit 2km to go and Gatey took over at the front, with me on his wheel. After a good long pull from Gatey I took the boys for about 300m. Looked around and they had been swamped by other riders. Novie still managed to get up for 4^th. Im sure it could have been a better result if the race wasn't stopped.
Tomorrow we go to the west coast of Ireland, 160km Yee haa
SRM 38.8kmph average. 3Hr47min for 147km. 268Watt average, 325normalized.

Ireland

2011-05-21T05:17:00.000-07:00

Pre Race

Hi All,

I'm sitting in my room at the Dunboyne Castle in Ireland, Race eve here.
I will endeavor to keep you up to date with the happenings over the next 8 days.
The team of ;Mark Ryan, Shane Archbold, Aaron Gate, Myron Simpson
and Myself are going to begin our race around the bottom of the island tomorrow.

The tour covers 1247 kilometres over the eight stages with 28 categorised climbs, three of which are first category ascents.

This year's Rás is the 59th in its history. The action gets underway on Sunday May 22nd in Dunboyne, Co. Meath. It will then move counter-clockwise around the country, with stage finishes in Portumna, Kilrush, Castleisland, Castletownbere, Blarney, Tramore, Kildare, and Skerries, North County Dublin.

The next few days involve:

Stage 1, Sunday May 22: Dunboyne – Portumna, 148 kms
Stage 2, Monday May 23: Portumna – Kilrush, 164kms
Stage 3, Tuesday May 24: Kilrush – Castleisland, 175kms
Stage 4, Wednesday May 25: Castleisland – Castletownbere, 142kms
Stage 5, Thursday May 26: Castletownbere – Blarney, 156kms
Stage 6, Friday May 27: Blarney – Tramore, 172kms
Stage 7, Saturday May 28: Tramore – Kildare, 157kms
Stage 8, Sunday May 29: Kildare – Skerries, 133kms

Follow the race at http://www.anpost.ie/AnPost/IrishCyclingRas/Home/

Triptyque Ardennes

2011-05-16T01:25:00.000-07:00

Day One Trityque Ardennes

We had a three day tour of the Hilly region of Belgium this weekend, the Ardennes.
Today my role was to sit in the front of the bunch and do absolutely nothing while Myron, Jase and Wade tried to place themselves in the move. I was feeling much better today than I did the day before. I am back on Anti-biotics for yet another boil on my leg. I am pretty knowledgable about the condition now so I am able to keep it from getting worse during the tour.Novie and Gatey are our protected riders, as they both were the clear leaders of our in house hill time trial from the week before.The first stage was a 166km race with 1800m of climbing. A multitude of cat 1&2 climbs.. from the race organisers point of veiw. Beautiful area for cycling here, up and down, smooth roads, forrests, small towns. A good mix between france and belgium.I had a fun day on the bike today, I really enjoyed myself on the closed roads. I really just played round in the front part of the bunch. Eating and drinking as much as I wanted with the sun streaming down. I made it over still in the front of the bunch over the first 15km climb and watched as a large break went up the road with Gatey and Jase in it.

The roads kept undulating after a long descent and the bunch just glided through villages and over short climbs. Perfect.Before I knew it we had done 90 km in just over 2 hours. I was spinning away still, legs felt fine as I noticed fatigue amoung some of the peleton. We came back within sight of the break at one stage on our final long climb back up the peak. After the long boring 15km descent the break had taken off again. We hit the finishing circuit with 30km to ride. The break of 30 riders had 2minutes on the bunch. It was hard to make a move on the finishing circuit. I was ready to go, but was to indecisive with which group I wanted to go with.

Another 30 riders managed to take off and get a small gap before the finish. I came in with the front of my bunch. 3Minutes down on the winner.Tonight we are staying in a castle with a mote around the edge of it. Epic.
The stage was 4hours long 41.7kmph average. I averaged 254 watts, I have ridden 4hours next to my girlfriend Beth and averaged the same . 324 normalized. I was definitely saving matches.
Gatey managed to get in the sprint Jersey and is in 12^th position so we will be working for him tomorrow so he can get some more points. First sprint is after 20km we will be going full gas to make sure he can take some points.
Triptyque Day 2

After a massive breakfast and an hour transfer to the start, the boys were ready to go, regardless of the cold weather. The race today was 127km long but promised more hills

, including the same 15km climb to the highest point in belgium once again. There were apparently 7 category one climbs. The team plan was quite clear. Look after Gatey for the first sprint 20km in. Then sit near the front and wait for the moves to happen.All went according to plan for Gateys sprint after a reasonably messy start. We had a leadout train for the sprint 4km from the sprint. Wade did a massive 3km turn and left Myron, me, then shane to lead out gatey for the last km and a half. A little bit overkill for a sprint preme but we had to stamp our authority on the jersey. We were unchallenged, and even managed to ride off the front of the bunch for the sprint itself. Novie may have accidently took the 5 points over Gatey.. Lets hope that doesn't come back to bite us.We then settled back into riding near the front for a while. After a 20km descent, down the hill we turned around to climb back over, we hit a small town and the bunch got fairly nervous. We had heard after 55km there was a short steep and narrow 18% climb coming up. Luckily I was in the top half of the bunch, as so many riders just went backwards. The pace didn't ease up after the climb and it forced a split in the bunch, which luckily didn't stick, as we had gatey, wade and myron in it.Fairly soon I recognised the bottom slopes of the 15km climb. I settled into a rhythm and slowly moved myself up the bunch. The climb wasn't to tough, just fast. I missed my feed at the top of the hill after 90km, dropping my feedbag into some ones face at 50kmph. Sorry mate haha. We dropped down around more hilly areas and classic towns. We reached the second to last climb and it was clear I needed to make my way up the bunch. I couldn't seem to move from my position on the very fast and smooth descent. Smoke was visibly coming off peoples brakepads at close to 90kmph. The road was also quite narrow and a few corners caught some riders out. Tumbling into the grass. We then hit the final climb. It was ridiculously steep. 15% for about 2.5km – similar climb to moke lake in Queenstown, just a bit longer. It was deceptably long and I tried to make my way forward on the early slopes but saw it kept on going and going, so I tried to settle into a better rhythm. This was just 10km from the finish. The front group rode off and I also lost contact with the group with Wade and Jase in it. I managed to catch a couple of riders that also didn't make the group and we kept it going all the way to the finish holding off a huge group of riders by about a minute or so. The finish was a strange very narrow cobble lane through the middle of an alpine town.
Felt like quite a short day. A bit tougher than the day before though. 1500Meters of climbing in 127km, fairly decent when you weigh 82kg hah. I averaged 272watts (normalized at 340) for the 3hrs6min, 40.7kmph average.
Gatey is still in the jersey, so hopefully one more dominant sprint tomorrow and we can seal it up.
Still staying in the castle with a mote.

Triptyque Day 3

The team woke up to a terrible day outside, while there was still hope for the rain and storm clouds to clear, it didn't happen. I am usually not one to complain about bad conditions after living in invercargill, but after not racing in the rain for so long and never really racing down wet technical descents, I was a little worried.
The final stage was 153km, with Gatey's sprint point at 35km, just after a 5km uphill drag. The whole team had to be on their game to control the race, so that Gatey could seal the lead by winning one of the two possible sprints. The race started fast in a valley beside a stream. It was fairly clear to the bunch after 15km that the NZ team meant business today. There were many riders attempting pointless attacks as one or two of us would always be there to shut it down. We got to the top of the uphill run and started to establish a train down the hill leading up to the sprint. Wade, Myron and Jase lapped it off at the front while Me, Novie then finally Gatey waited until we could see the sprint point. The preme came sooner than we had anticipated, combined with not being able to see well in the wet conditions. Shane shot by with gatey in tow for them to take it out ahead of the man he needed points on.
The sprint was at the bottom of a long 20km gradual climb. We all had to recover fairly quickly.
By the top of the climb it was absolutely bucketing down and only about 10degrees. Unfortunately it cleared up on the downhill and we then got the windchill on top of being wet. I was not game enough to risk going back to the car for a jacket. Luckily I was ok, as it stayed dry for the next hour or so. There was a tough we false flat/crosswind section that caught a lot of the bunch off guard, including me, and it split up a bit. I managed to get back on, some weren't so lucky.
There was a long 40km fast flat slight/downhill section after it, going through plenty of alpine/touristy towns, including Vielsalm, our base for the training camp last weekend. I was successful at taking a feed after 90km unlike yesterday before hitting the feature climb of the day. One that we had done twice in the training camp. A 13km climb, steep in a few parts. Follwed by a long slightly uphill plateau at the top. I started near the front, and managed to maintain position for the first section to a small town, it was not as steep as I had recalled. As we hit the second part of the climb, there was a huge strain on the bunch caused by Davo, challenging the yellow jersey. It started splitting up everywhere, which I could see due to a couple of switchbacks. There was only one thing to do for 20minutes, hurt myself. I was stuck in between two big groups, I pushed on, chasing after the group infront of me, the second group on the road. The big group behind me caught up with me and we started working together in pursuit of the bunch. On the straight downhill I was tapped out at 85, sprinting out of the saddle to catch up to the group just in front. Finally we had formed a substantial bunch. Surprisingly enough we were still only about 30seconds down on the front of the race. We were only about 35km from the finish then as we hit a multitude of short steep climbs and descents. We did a small 10km loop before continuing down to the finish. The loop was very tough, a 2km climb with very steep pinchers over 15%. I was in my smallest gear giving it everything to keep moving forward.. Trying not to go to far in the red and have to stop like a lot of other riders! After this there was a long false flat plateau, then another 5km gradual climb, thankfully not as steep. By that point I was back to being in a small bunch of 10 just riding hard to get to the finish. As the team car went past I attempted the snickers dance to have no success. (a movement with the upper body to signify we want a snickers bar). Just for kicks there was some hail across the 5km flat before the 3km descent down into Verviers, the finish town. I rode up the short 500m to the finish. Quite glad to finish. I arrived to hear that Novie had taken out the bunch kick for 3^rd. Bloody impressive considering he choose to ride the classics wheels which are a hell of a lot heavier than carbons to lug around the hills. Gatey had also sealed up the Rush – sprint jersey, awesome.

Surprisingly there was only 1000m of climbing in the stage. I covered the 153km in just over 3hours40, with an average speed of 40.7kmph. I averaged 290 watts normalized at 340.
I ended up in 106^th position on GC almost 11minutes down on the winner. There were almost 200 starters and we finished with 150, about 40 riders pulled the pin on the last day.

Another part of the campaign is over, at the end of this week most of the team will head to Ireland for the RAS, then everyone goes to Germany for a prestigious U23 tour.
Thats all for now.

Eschborn, Germany

2011-05-01T23:01:00.000-07:00

Photo - Graham Watson

This previous weeks happenings..

The team had a 3 day track block on the indoor velodrome in Gent. We focused on some of the shorter kind of efforts to maintain power. This consisted of efforts like big gear, seated start, kilos. Team pursuit kilos, and for the final day we had planned to do Motorpaced kilos. All very short kind of stuff. We also managed to get out on the road for a couple of hours each morning - following our noses out training we managed to navigate ourselves right into the middle of Gent city.On the third day we only got out for an hour in the wet, it was terrible I wasn't myself. I felt sick and had no energy whatsoever, when I got back to the hotel I slept for an hour. Waking up and not feeling much better I decided to pull the pin on the last days track session.
By the next day I felt much better, but decided to pretty much have a rest day.. Still had to ride to Benny's for a massage and back.
The next day I managed to get out for a bit longer, 1hour30m. Had no power in my legs at all. At the top of a small rise I was smashed - very strange. We then traveled 3 hours to Germany later that day. We stayed in Eschborn, a small center just to the west of Frankfurt.

We had a big race the next day called the Rund um den Finanzplatz. Eschborn - Frankfurt. A Pro-race supported by a 100km fun ride, 70km roller blading race, U19 race and our U23 race.
It was a surprisingly big event. Most of Frankfurt was shut down to hold the race.
Funny to think that it had been 8 years since I was last in Frankfurt playing soccer for a New Zealand soccer team.I also noticed on the way in that there were some serious hills surrounding the area. I didn't have a clue what the course was going to be like. The team meeting, the night before the race started something like this, "Well there is a gradual climb to 700m in the first 45km." Looking at the profile we stayed at 100m altitude till 35km into the race. So a 10km climb..? Yep. Other than that the profile showed another shorter climb a bit further in the race. Other than that the course looked quite smooth and suitable for a sprinter if you could get over a few hills.
The morning of the race started with a buffet breakfast. I was down there for about 2 hours haha. Safe to say I wasn't going to hunger bonk in the race.
The team rode to the start in the nick of time to sign in on a stage and prepare. We were rushed to get to the start line and ended up lining up at the back of 180 riders.The race started by traveling from Eschborn to Frankfurt through some downtown streets. I narrowly avoided a huge pileup on an over bridge. I managed to make my way up to the front of the pack to make sure I wouldn't get taken down - lucky the Mexican team wasn't racing.
I stayed up near the front as I noticed the road started going uphill every so often. A tell tale sign that we were nearing the big climb. I avoided another crash at the bottom of the hill when a rider hit an unmarked barrier in the middle of the road. Phew.
The climb wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Luckily I was feeling good. It was still not an easy feat, I hit my 20min personal best power.
I was stoked to be in the front of the race over the top of the big climb. There was a quick descent(I spent a lot of time over 80kmph) through some alpine towns, sharp corners and heaps of people lining the closed roads.
There were a few surprisingly long steep climbs to break up the descent. I ended up having to chase the peleton for 5km at full noise with a group to remain in contact. Just as my group rejoined the peleton we hit a really steep we climb no longer than 500meters. I was giving it the maximum as the euros would say. I was please to go under the KOM banner signifying the top of the climb. The road kept going slightly uphill for another 500m and it was just enough to completely break me. I then lost complete contact with the peleton. I tried to chase back on through the convoy but it was pointless, the race was gone.

I rode about 10km solo before being caught by a big group with Jase and Myron in it. We rode the next 20km until the feed zone where we jumped in the team van. Race over.
Novie and Gatey managed to stay with the front for the race. Gatey got up to finish 10th place.

For the time I spent with the race I averaged 317watts for 1hr50m -74km.

Coming up next for me is another Kermesse on Wednesday in Beveren. In the weekend we have a 3 day training camp in the Ardennes, previewing a 3 day tour in the Ardennes the week after.
Cheers for reading.

Cam

Molenstede Kermesse

2011-04-24T23:49:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone.

Had a head cold for most of the week, the day after ZLM. This, I put down to the fact that in ZLM particularly, I was behind a lot of riders that were blowing their noses etc.. so not good. It took a few days of stop start training to get back to 100% health once again, some days a bit too eager to step back into it.
Over the weekend I felt a lot better so decided to race a kermesse just 10km down the road.
Hard to believe that I have already clocked up 660km race kms since I have been here. I suspect this number could get up to well over 5000kms by the end of the campaign.
So back to the Molenstede kermesse.
Only 3 kiwi starters, Novie, Gatey and myself. 14 laps of a tough tight wee 8km circuit, including a 1.4km pave climb with cobbles across the top. A super hot sunny meant that drinking loads was going to be key to last the distance.

I started rather aggressively to get in a group that got a small group going over the first climb. I drove this down through some of the tight corners through the gullies, under the shade of the trees. It didn't last very long and I retired to the bunch for a short period.
I didn't want to get caught out by a break going up the road and got back up to the action of the front. On the 2nd lap I saw that there were already a group of 3 riders up the road, with 2 groups of 2 already in pursuit. I followed another rider over the top of the climb and got a small gap on the bunch. We worked well together for 5km to catch the break in front of me. The bunch must have hesitated in their chase because we were quickly out of sight. As soon as the 9 riders up front had started rolling through, I knew this was going to be a break that would stick. 100km to go.
Not going to lie, legs felt terrible coming off my cold. I hung in there for the next 80km going through about 5 water bottles. The gap went out to 2min. Every time up the hill and out of each of the corners sapped most of the energy from my legs. On the 2nd to last lap the break started getting interesting with plenty of attacks and solo attempts. The last climb was terrible. The pace was no different to the previous 13 times up the climb, but I just hit the wall and the legs simply could not push any harder. The worst feeling knowing that I still had about 7km until I was actually finished, I could not just stop. I also didn't know what the latest time gap was, so I had about a minute to play with. I tt'd the rest of the way and managed to safely take 8th with about a min to spare from the charging bunch. Novie led in a bunch for 12th.

Only about 40 finishers with 180 starters, so that shows how tough it was.
SRM - 315 watts, normalised at 353. 112km in 2hr 41min = 41kmph average.

Track camp in Ghent for 3 days this week, followed by a long race in Germany on Saturday. Should be all good.
Cam

ZLM Tour

2011-04-16T11:37:00.000-07:00

I'll start this one off with a metaphor that I have run into quite a lot recently - a cycling race is a metaphor of life. I have found many different ways of saying it, but that is the basic way of saying it. I have come to see that in any one race you can make thousands of your own decisions, directly interacting and corresponding with the decisions of others, ultimately affecting your outcome. The organism of a bunch is a lot like life because while it is tough and unpredictable, you have to make the most of what you have, make your own luck, keep moving forward and ultimately you will decide your own fate.

Or maybe I have done to much study today, haha.

The 180km ZLM tour in Holland was the final of three Nations cup races that the bikenz team took part in. A short drive up to Holland on the day of the race, it was hard to believe that we were about to embark on yet another epic. I was looking forward to it once again.

We prepared ourselves away from the hype of the crowd around the start line, even seperating ourselves from other teams. Then riding to sign on in the middle in the middle of a town square, festival and markets dominating the space. Not long waiting around on the start line.. No nerves to be had this time, except for the concern that I had forgotten to grab my gloves. Hoping like hell I wasn't going to need them. The race started with a long neutral section, after starting right near the back, somehow I managed to slip my way up to the front along the side of the jammed packed road. After the motorbikes had pulled away once again the race started playing out like a script, attacks from everyone near the front trying to establish the break.

It was clear to see that nothing was going to be let go, with the wide smooth roads and a hundred primed and energetic riders. A slight breeze of wind was a small concern after witnessing how open the circuit was likely to be.
After a short period of racing I became very active and right up near the action end of the peleton. I was covering promising moves on the narrower paths and even escaped shortly in a crosswind section with a small bunch.
After escaping the small farming villages we then moved out into the open and brutal plains, where I was still managing to be active and stay near the front. Prior to the hardest section of the race I made an almost fatal error of trying to bridge to a small group of six just up the road. As I did the road veered right onto a flood bank. I had the whole peleton tied to my wheel as I tried to get across, As I started to fatigue I noticed the long bridge over the sea ahead of me. I also felt the wind brushing my left side as I pulled over to form an echelon with the riders directly behind me. They didn't like this idea very much and decided to attack under me and go full noise in the gutter - providing no shelter for the man behind him. I was left watching a snake of riders hurtling past me on my right. The peleton is only so long, so I had to quickly find a place in this line. I was in a lot of pain already but I had to give it everything for 3km or so, it seemed to last forever. Why are crosswinds so hard you wonder?. You are getting no draft, or windbreak from the rider in front of you, while the riders at the front have formed an echelon, working together and providing each other shelter. Effectively you are doing the work of three or more people. If you drop that wheel, unfortunately its game over. I was one of the lucky ones on those bridges, about 20 or more riders got dropped.

A tailwind kept the pace high for an extended period of time, as a break was yet to escape the reaches of the group. It didn't take long until the pace finally eased and riders started to go back and grab a feed from their respective team cars. I went back grabbed a bottle for everyone in the team. The instruction from Stu was to stay forward and not get caught out..Again. That was clear as the sky.

After handing out all the bottles I settled back into race mode and tried to focus on being in the right spot in the right time. Typical crashes happened everywhere at almost every point in the race, like artillery raining down on a troop of soldiers. I was lucky to avoid the spills once again, but witnessed a fair few. The mexican team have built quite a name for themselves as being the ones to avoid.
About 2/3rds of the way into the race we crossed the Zeelandbrug a 5km stretch across the ocean. A photo at the start of the blog shows it (So when are they going to bridge across the Cook Strait?)
What a spectacle that was, this was also the moment in the race where I felt the least safe. I was right next to the each of the barricade, over which was atleast a 20meter fall to the ocean. It would have been a terrible time for a pile up.

Later in the race I managed to plant myself in a break of 8 with all the right countries. Our lead grew to about 20 seconds before the ante was upped in the bunch and the cooperation dissipated within the bunch. Being able to actually roll through properly and do some work after getting settled in, in the break was refreshing as I felt that I was one of the stronger riders in the group. It was a counter attack of our group that was the break of the day as 3 eastern european riders managed to escape just as the bunch started to have a slightly easier period.

They eventually were out to a gap of close to 3minutes before the team of Slovenia jumped on the front and ramped the pace until we got to the first of two 10km finishing circuits. They quickly reeled in the break in an unbelievable time. I was glad to hit the finishing circuits as I knew then that I was able to finish this race. After misjudging many corners, and getting caught up in the rush to get to the front, I found myself mid pack once again. The Slovenian team by now had handed over the reigns to the Russian team. I found myself thinking they were winding up for the sprint about 16km too early. Completing half a lap of the first finishing circuit the bunch then hit a long unexpected crosswind. With the Russians on the front. As Tom David said after the race, "The morale was gone when I saw that". I was on Tom's wheel and we were able to witness, from the gutter, one group separating to become five.

Everyone in the team apart from Myron were in the second group on the road, Myron unfortunately got tangled up in a crash on the last lap. Our group rode unnecessarily hard to get to the finish, with about 40 riders up the road. There were people attacking our bunch. I finished the race around 60th spot. Such a tough race. Safe to say I was glad for it to be over.

Some of the data.. 180km in 4hr5min - 44kmph average. 275watt average, while normalised was 327watts.

Not to much is happening around here for a while, but I'm sure there will be something to write about, We are going to Leuven for the afternoon tomorrow. After a bit of freshening up, I'll try my luck at another kermesse. Should be great.
Cam

La Côte Picarde

2011-04-14T00:45:00.000-07:00

France. Windmills, fields of yellow flowers, smooth undulating roads and fast racing. Round two of 2011 Nations cup started in the region of Picardie, hence the name La Cote Picardie. Racing around the coastal region, starting in Le Crotoy and finishing in Eu.Being slightly colder and windier than it was at Flanders, with a flatter course, it was going to be a race decided by wind, if not it was going to be decided by climbs on the finishing circuit.
The team of Wade Mangham, Jason Christie, Tom David, Tom Findlay, Myron Simpson and myself drove up the day before, we stayed in a two star motel/hotel place on the coast. Apparently much better than last years accomodation.

After a big breakfast at the hotel we made our way out to the start village. Yet another experience of podium sign on and announcement in front of a crowd and some classic kiwi footpath parking, in the crowd. Before I knew it I was on the line, ready to race. This time I was not very nervous, as I knew what to expect from the day. After a very short and tight neutral section, the race started slowly as the front of the peleton spread across the width of the road. Making it extremely difficult to move up when your in the middle of the pack. The legs felt GOOD. It wasn't long before the road veered left, as it did the paced increased and the peleton stretched and doubled in length. I took this opportunity to bolt to the front and start working in the first echelon. It was very short lived as we turned another left again and started slugging

away into a headwind. This short section set the tone for the race. Being at the front was going

to absolutely vital when the direction changed again.

Unfortunately every rider in the race was thinking on the same wavelength.This caused the peleton to have 'double vortex', where riders move up on both sides and ride onto the front, then riders that have been pushed back do the same, over and over. It was a big gamble deciding when to jump into a wave at the right time in order to be at the front when a cross wind struck. Also very dangerous, as the first of many crashes started to happen. I timed it wrong when a large crosswind section began and was mid pack. The strain and speed was obvious, the wind was driving against the left side of the pack and riders on the left started forcing their way into one long long line in the right gutter. I looked up and all I could see was exposed green fields and no evidence of the road turning any time soon. To make matters worse some mexican and a couple of others clipped wheels in the gutter and hit the deck just ahead of me. This opened up a gap to the group in front. Panic stations. I did not want my race to be over in the first 15km! Luckily I was now at the front of the second echelon chasing down the front group. I could also see the road hooking left back into the wind. It still took about 5km of chasing

to get back on the group. Never making that mistake again, no matter how tough it is to get to the front.

The race then buttoned off in the headwind and a non-threatening break was able to get up the road. After going through a multitude of smaller towns with barricades and crowds of people the race was a wee bit of a blur for the next hundred km or so.
At one stage in the race we had 4 of the team near to the front as we hit a short crosswind section. We took the opportunity to split up the race and started ramping it up. We held the pace at 55 for a couple of kms this stretched the peleton out completely but wasn't enough to break the chain before a change in direction. Being on the front of the race at such a speed being able to look back and see the long line was a weird feeling after such a long time stuck in the congested bunch. Almost a relief.

The team stayed on the front after the crosswind, riding at tempo, taking in some fuel without having to worry about bumping into other riders. We are also hoping for another change in direction and the wind to pummel the group on our wheel. After 15min of headwind and villages we retired to the middle of the pack.

For a few km the pace eased again. It was then I took the opportunity to go back for some bottles from the team car, having drunk most of the supplies on my bike. With only one feed on the course at 100km I didn't want to take the chance of missing a bottle and going without. I managed to pick up four new bottles and distribute the spare two between the team. I also managed to grab one in the feed. Perfect. It wasn't long before I recognised the roads of the finishing circuit, I took Tom Findlay to a good spot near the front of the bunch during a quick descent. I was right up the front of the bunch when I hit the finish line with two 18km laps of the finishing circuit to go. We turned right almost immediately and made our way up a km and a half climb out of the town onto a plateau. Very tough! I plummeted backwards through the field. The legs were screaming. I made it over the top with a small group looking up the road to see that rejoining the main field was near on impossible as they sailed away. The group I was with kept trucking along and picking up stray riders until we had a good group of 20 or so. After watching the others sprint it out for 95th place I rolled in for 103rd laughing at the aggression of the

sprint. 7minutes down on the winner. Pleased with my ride.

SRM's say that the race was 176km, which took 4hr18m. 41kmph. 278 watt average, 338 normalised power.

Next nations cup race is on Holland on Saturday. The ZLM tour. A race with more wind and a flatter course again. With two long races in my legs it will be good to test myself.
Thanks for reading, hope your are enjoying it so far.

Position needs fixing on the trek........

Cam

U23 Tour of Flanders

2011-04-10T05:44:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone

So the kermesse on Wednesday didn't go ahead, got lost on the way there ended up missing the sign on by a good 30 minutes. Ended up watching the start then riding home. 140km for the day.

I ended up having a couple of slightly easier days before the u23 tour of flanders on the 9th.

The day started with driving to Ooudenarde, about an hour and a half to the west of our base in Blauberg, clear skies, a beautiful day. Upon arrival we got set up amongst the other nations, numbers on backs, food in pockets, tires pumped. Signed in on the podium, in front of a small crowd, names anounced and after a short warm up I was lined up on the start line. After watching the Pro's race more or less the same course the previous week, I was nervous but also excited.

This race was a much bigger deal than the old kermesse, my heart was racing. The nerves were very evident within the peleton throughout the neutral zone. Any small gap had to be taken to get closer to the front. Everyone wanted to be at the front. This made things very dangerous around the tight outskirts of Ooudenarde. As the race started it was even worse as the pace increased and the width of the road was used to the maximum as riders tried to push their way through non-existant gaps. Nerve racking times. Not super fast, I was more concerned about my spot in the bunch than how tough it was initial. After about 5km of racing there was the tell tale sound of carbon crushing against the concrete as 20 riders crashed only a couple of wheels behind me. It's all about being near the front to avoid crashes! Things didn't calm down at all and got even more heck tic before the first cobble section after 10km. 3km of cobbles, everyone tried to jump on the dirt path on the side. That was it for the cobbles for a while.

A small break had escaped so that relaxed the peleton slightly. The rest of the road circuit involved a large variety of road surface and terrain. 17 category 5 climbs, all about 1km long, some steeper than others. These climbs and about 2km after each one, were about the only times when the race really heated up on the circuit. One of the harder climbs we went along a street parallel to the infamous 'mur'.

I was lucky to get a bottle on both climbs we were getting fed on, some of the team weren't so lucky and missed out. We had to ration and share around our bottles between the team.

It was tough to make a conscious effort for so long to constantly move up while avoiding dangerous people and the edge, or middle of the road(the valley of death, a gap left between the concrete slabs making the road). Myron and Tom Findlay were doing well at holding positions close to the front. The pace started getting a lot tougher after the first 100km, approaching a tough cobbled climb called the Molenburg, then almost immediately after another hard 3km cobbled false flat through a town. Everyone in the peleton was desperate to get close to the front before the Molenburg. The Molenburg climb started in what looked like someones driveway,

very tight for about 100riders. A mexican in front of me locked up and slid a good 20meters, grabbing hard on his back brakes. Smashing it up the climb, some one in front of me had dropped the wheel and a gap had opened up.

As a small group we spent the next 5km chasing before the 3km cobbled false flat. Only just rejoining a few km before it started. It was rough! Everyone tried to jump onto the footpaths, finding the smoothest line. Complete chaos, lots of dust, the peleton splintered into many groups. This almost looked like the end for me and the group I was in. A quick descent and some technical tight roads made the chase for us slightly easier. We were agonizingly close on a steep climb, but once again the peleton pulled away. After another descent we made contact again. Just as we started the first lap of the finishing circuit. Two laps of 20km or so. After so much

chasing I wasn't feeling to shabby. As we hit the first cobbles of the finishing circuit I wasn't in such a bad position, the bunch of 100 or so I was sitting about 50th wheel. It happened very quickly, about 6 guys went to the ground in front of me, I locked up the brakes and skidded into the heap, as did about 10 others, including Wade. Luckily for me I got away unscathed, not even a scratch!

I apart from being further forward there was not much I could have done to avoid the crash. I was stuck by two bikes for a good 40seconds then had to remount my chain. I chased the peleton solo for the next 10km never to see it again. I rode the last lap of the course alone to reflect. The broom wagon left me to it. I came in when the winner was being presented, therefore not making the time cut, and being classed as DNF.

Some SRM data from the race: 174km in 4hr 50m, thats an average speed of 36kmph. 275watt average, normalised at 333w.

Next Nations cup race is on Wednesday. The Cote de Picardie in France. I will be lining up for it with some decent race kms in my legs. Until then I will tick the legs over and prepare.

Cheers.

Back in Belg - Ottergem Kermesse

2011-04-03T11:17:00.001-07:00

Yes. I have returned to Belgium. I was expecting snow storms, torrential rain, wind, hail just every bad bit of weather you can think of. I was surprised and happy to discover that this was infact not the case. It has been beautiful - so far. Clear sunny days, still quite crisp but I am loving it.

It's early spring here, the trees are bare, some are only just blossoming, its very different

compaired to last year. It's definitely the time of season for road cycling.

In the Ottergem Kermesse yesterday we had close to 270 starters! and I would say at least 200 of those would be capable of winning a benchmark race in NZ. This proves for some tough racing on tight circuits. Again, completely different to last years kermesse's - I

was put to the sword yesterday!

The circuit at Ottergem was 6.5km long. We did 19 laps. I started about midpack.... big mistake. It took me the first 5 laps going full gas to get into the top 50 wheels. Spare a thought for Myron and Jase Christie. They started at the back, it took them half the race to get up to the front haha.

So the circuit - it was probably one of the best kermesse circuits I have done. real smooth flow, fast. 3 good wee climbs, heaps of corners. Good fast crosswind section and a 200m cobbled climb..yeea!

The only downer was that 50m after the finish line was a corner, and it was a downhill sprint.

As I was saying, I did not feel the best. Spent a lot of time in the red. I am putting this down to the fact that its my first road race in a while. How the race unfolded I don't quite know, I wasn't near enough to the front to see what was going on. Towards the end a lot of the riders were blowing to bits I was one of few that kept going and was actually able to force the pace a bit. The peleton splintered into groups of 20 or so, I think I was second group on the road towards the end. Finishing about 30-40th overall. Quite pleased to just finish the race, a good blow out id say.

You also may notice in the photos that I'm riding a new bike. Trek Europe have come onboard to sponsor the team. A few teething problems(backward brakes for me - skids) but once they are up and running they'll be wicked!

Like last year i'll continue to put some SRM data on here. the kermesse yesterday was an average of 290 watts. Normalized at 355w. (normalized takes into account all the free wheeling etc). 112km at 40.9km/ph. Actually quite similiar to last years racing powers.. but by sitting in the wheels?

After the Kermesse the whole team went out for dinner at an italian place in Aarschot to celebrate my 20th birthday. I was very impressed, not very often(if not ever) a table full of bike riders physically cannot finish their food. Some good yarns and laughs, rounded off a brilliant night out.

Next Kermesse on Wednesday, then U23 flanders on the 9th. My form is coming, I should be going all right by Saturday. Tune in next time.

Cheers all.

Cam

Bendigo

2011-03-20T20:06:00.000-07:00

I had a great week in Bendigo Australia. After the Melbourne Madison Brad Evans, Shane Archbold, Tom Scully and I all rode up from the edge of Melbourne to arrive in the beautiful town/city of Bendigo. Regarded by many and now myself as one of the worlds cycling havens. Boasting smooth and scenic roads all around the region and a historic 417m outdoor track, Bendigo is famous for producing many of Australia's top cyclists.

The bikenz team were in Bendigo with mixed objectives, for good kms and training, track racing and experience. We had 3 or 4 solid days out on the road for more than 3 hours followed by a couple of motorpacing sessions on the track in the afternoon, for the best part of the week the weather was gorgeous. The only day we saw some serious rain was 5 hours before the big 80km bendigo madison - the torrential down poor would have cause a lot of stress with some of the organisers considering the previous year was also rained out! hard to believe but before that it hadn't rained in Bendigo for more than 8 years. It now rains regularly - strange fact.

Anyway the Bendigo Madison has some serious history behind it. The race has been held for 50 years now. As we were looking at the race pamphlet we could see many famous cyclists such as mark cavendish, bradley wiggins, mark rensaw and even our own coaches tim carswell and dayle cheatly had all ridden the even before. A lot of history and folk lore stems from the event. Thousands of the people of Bendigo came out to support and be a part of the event this year. Not to mention about 2 million bugs littering the track and swarming the flood lights.

I rode the race with Brad. We didn't have much hope in the way of winning the madison but our goal was to help the other kiwi's in their bid for glory. We also wanted to finish!

We ended up claiming 7 points. - there were sprints even 5 laps for 200 laps. We helped Scud and Novie into 2nd, but could do nothing to stop the force of Cam Meyer and Leigh Howard putting an astonishing 3 laps on the field, a feat that had never been done before in the event.

I had a great time and am already looking forward to going back next year.

Just recently I finished the R&R sports tour in Dunedin, a weekend tour with 5 stages.

a lot tougher than I expected, provided me with some good racing kms and a bit of a battering to the legs. I managed to pull off one stage win on the 2nd day from a breakaway of 3 riders. But with higher aspirations for the tour I was slightly disappointed.

This friday the 25th of March I head off to Europe for the next 5 months. I will let you know when I get there.

Cam

Heres a thought

2011-03-08T22:09:00.000-08:00

Success is peace of mind which is a direct result

of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best

to become the best that you are capable of becoming.

Track Nationals '11

2011-03-03T11:33:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone

As many will already know my path was not one of those to head to Manchester World Cup. Instead I stayed in New Zealand to build up for the track nationals. Without many of the heavy hitters and event specialists racing, it was a good opportunity to put on a show and perform.

I had in store for the week, an Omnium and a Team Pursuit. The omnium involves 6 events over 3 days. Not usually in this order, but we kicked it off with a kilometer time trial, followed by 4km Individual pursuit, 15km Scratch race, Flying 250m, Elimination race and finally the 30km points race.

*1:04.421

The kilo, not the best event to have first. I struggled with my km after doing half a lap then being waved down because of Jase's pulled pedal and the gate still being on the blue. I had about 3mins to recover from this effort, to start again and still knock out a pretty good time. I wanted to do a pb on the night though so I wasn't to happy. Simon van Velthooven knocked out a low 1.02 time, I couldn't complain with 2nd.

*2nd in the kilo

The next morning was the Individual Pursuit. A big goal if not the most important goal of the weekend. I wanted a sub 4m30sec ride. My personal best to date was a 4:34 the previous year. I felt strong and smooth, controlled the whole ride and qualified first with a good time and new pb of 4:29.464. a fast average speed of 53.44kmph!

The rest of the day was spent at home thinking about the 1st/2nd ride off against Jase Allen. having qualified 2.5seconds ahead of Jase I was quite nervous, knowing that Jase would bring everything to the final ride. I also knew this was a good opportunity to put my name on an important piece of tin. The IP trophy. I had a good warmup at the track, my lungs were very sore, I had what many call pursuiters cough.

Into the final the plan was to go out and ride smooth and fast for the first 2km. I was slightly slower than Jase after 2km, but I had the legs to lift and hold. The last 8 laps I had to go full gas and try to bring each lap faster and faster. Unfortunately Jase was able to lift with me and kept me half a second down. The last two laps I gave it everything I had but still could not bring Jase back. It was intense! The crowd was getting right in behind me. I heard the gun fire as Jase hit the line as I was just in sight of the line. I wasn't dissapointed with 2nd I couldn't have gone any harder. My time was 4:29.880 a good time for my 2nd 4km pursuit of the day.

Later that night after the pursuit we also had the 15km scratch race. My legs weren't amazing for the race. I could not contribute a lot to the race. but still tried to move up into the right position in the last 10laps, This didn't work very well because with 4 laps to go I was about 8th wheel! With three laps to go I had to attack to have any chance of getting a good placing for the omnium. This didn't work very well, but worked well for fellow Southlanders, Tom Scully got up for 3rd and Lee Evans got 2nd. Jase managed to take it out.

The next morning was the flying laps. The shortest and personally the easiest event of the omnium. I felt good, the track was fast, I knew I was going to do a quick time. I flew in and punched around the track and managed to clock a 13.381! A lot faster than I had expected! if I were doing a flying 200m it would equate to 10.7, which would have qualified me 2nd in the sprints! a clear winner in the omnium series with an average speed of 67.2kmph.

The final night had in store an elimination race and a 30km points race to finish. Both events which I need to work on. Only 8 riders started the elimination. I was unlucky to get eliminated 4th to last which put me 2nd in the Ominum by one point to Tom Scully. Scud would have been very hard to beat in the points race.

I was always there or there abouts in the points race. I was still quite far from a lot of the sprint action but managed to get enough points to hold 2nd in the Omnium. I wasn't in trouble of getting dropped at any stages and only selected a couple of sprints to go for when the time was right.

2nd in the omnium showed off my impovement in the timed events. Being able to win all three time events I should have done a lot better in the mass start events. I could blame it on lack of experience or luck, but I think it could be a bit of indecision and lack of commitment to making moves. I can still be pleased with my results and learn from the experience.

To finish the week (or weekend I should say) we had a team pursuit. We had the dream team. Scud, Piete Bulling and Hamish Tomlinson and I. All of us are what I would call quite experienced team pursuiters. To qualify for the 1st/2nd rideoff we had to ride a 4:24 for 4km. An easy demand for our team, we clocked a 4:17 to go into the final against the southland juniors!

In the final we wanted to have a dominant ride and went out a lot harder than the qualifying ride aiming to catch the southland juniors. We consistently held 15.3 second laps, which is just shy of 60kmph. With 5 laps to go we caught the back of the other team and the race was over. So was my nationals.

A good way to finish the week, On top of the podium.

Now I am in Australia for a week. Racing two track carnivals and getting some decent training in. the night of the 5th we raced in the Melbourne Madison. I raced with Brad Evans as my partner, we took a solid 6th in the 50km Madison. The next day we rode 130km up to Bendigo through some beautiful country. Got a big week to follow, finishing with the Bendigo Madison..80km long!

Cheers for stopping by

Cam

Tour of Wellington

2011-01-30T15:32:00.000-08:00

Last week I completed the 2011 Tour of Wellington, a 5 day epic around the bottom of the North Island. It was a great trip for me, along the way I exceeded my own expectations and discovered some new abilities.. mainly to ride uphill well. I rode with the BikeNZ National Team (the track team) Team members were Shane Archbold, Jason Christie, Aaron Gate and Myron Simpson.

Day One

Upper Hutt - Masterton 118km. Now those of you who don't know this area, I will tell you this, It is rather hilly, the course we took gathered in more than 1400 vertical meters, Which in my books is quite a lot. We were to take in the dreaded Rimutaka's an 3km climb, directly followed by a 6km climb. Further into the stage we also covered a massive 7km climb and countless rises that I would have previously named hills.

On the day the team cruised 30km in the morning before finding out we had a 20km neutral zone before the racing had even started!

As the race started, an unusual thing happened to my heart rate, it sky rocketed, before we had even hit a climb. I was up to 180bpm on the flat! I was slightly concerned riding up the first hill and reading 195 flashing on the SRM, while still being able to hold a conversation. I reasoned this to a couple of things, rest days before the tour and the hot temperature.

I made it over the first 3km climb in the bunch alright, the legs were already screaming! dropping down the descent I moved up the bunch in anticipation for the 6km Rimutaka's climb.

Riding up the hill I got dropped from the bunch about halfway up the climb, thinking I was at the top, I came around the next corner I looked up and over to the saddle, still kilometers away. It was then I did something different with my approach to climbing. Instead of holding someone elses wheel and riding at the pace they set. I decided to ride at my own pace, this pace wasn't easy very close to giving %100. It didn't matter to me whether I was catching people or people were going past me, just as long as I got to the top knowing I had ridden as hard as I could to get there. This set me up with a good group of guys to hurtle down the descent in pursuit of the peleton. I had one very close call on one corner when a rider had fallen on a blind right hander directly in my line. I was nudging close to 60kmph and at that speed I didn't have to much time to react. I grabbed the brakes and locked up sliding between the rider and his bike towards the edge of the road. As I hit the white line of the road, with about half a meter of tarmac left the wheels magically caught hold of the seal and I was able to lean my bike away and avoid serious injury!

I kept descending, brushing the incident off rather lightly at the time and refocused on finishing the descent as fast as possible. I caught up to a good group of riders lapping well, and to my surprise we already had the peleton in sight. Within 5km we caught the bunch. After a short rest and some investigation about the race situation with other riders I managed to slide off the front solo, now in pursuit of a small group of riders. Once I had joined them I was alerted to the fact that a group of 10 riders had broken away over the main climb and we were in fact pursuing them across a 4minute gap. The group didn't lap well and we were soon caught by a whittled bunch of about 20 riders that were now the main peleton. I still don't know how it happened, but apparently a selection of the peleton was made on the flat and now there were groups all over the place. I was lucky to be in the second group on the road.

Halfway through the first day we hit the bottom of another climb, I made the mistake of forgetting the altitude profile of the course and assumed it was only 3km long or so. . 7km later we hit the top of the hill and the bunch had shrunk considerably once again. The hill was rather tough! After a fast descent our small group continued the long, hot and slow journey over some smaller hills. After collecting my 8th bottle for the day from the follow car we finally were within 15km of the finish. One steep climb remained before the flat road to the finish. Getting over it with no problems was a huge relief as I knew now there was no chance of me getting dropped. Approaching the finish our group had a small sprint, which I stayed close to the front for and finished 18th in the stage. 10m52s down ! My average heart rate was 180bpm, for more than 3 hours..

Day Two

Masterton - Admiral hill 125km.

The queen stage of the Tour, the most hilly day in the tour. A total of 7 category 5 climbs, 1 cat four, 1 cat three and 1 cat two. More than 1600m vertical in climbing. PureBlack had James Williamson in the Yellow, so there was now some control and structure to the peleton. They let a break go up the road in the early stages of the race. The Bikenz team just floated around the middle of the bunch as the whole PureBlack team worked on the front. I surprised myself by being comfortable up all of the category 5 climbs. I got to the bottom of the climb I was most worried about 20km before the finish. 2.5km at more than 6%. I gave it everything all the way up the climb and made it over as part of the 2nd group of the peleton. Going down the 7km descent (the previous days long climb) we caught back up to the front bunch! Hitting the bottom of the Admirals climb, the pace started heating up and the bunch split in two long lines. 9km climb to the finish of the stage. I rode a good hard tempo up the hill by myself and only lost 6m30 to the winner!

The most action of the day came after the stage when the Bikenz team rode back to Masterton from the end of the stage. We all descended slightly very fast down the Admiral Hill. I backed off before hitting some of the switchback sections. I swooped around a long left hand corner and see 2 bikes in the bush! and Gatey on the side of the road. I stopped and watched Myron jump in the back of the ambulance happened to be following us down the hill! Myron was unlucky to break his collarbone.

Day Three

Masterton - Pahiatua - Masterton. 160km

George Bennett was the new leader of the tour by this stage so the day was going to be very interesting. I wondered how much pressure would be put on his team by the other GC teams and how they would cope. Cope they did! a break away didn't form until about 70km into the stage. Everything that went up the road had a GC risk attached. So nothing lasted long with the Cardno team chasing madly. That made the pace in the peleton very quick and tough for a very long time. Finally a small group took off and the pace eased off. The only GC threat was Joe Cooper, 3mins down. Very quickly the gap went out to 3mins and the pace picked up once again. The cardno team worked hard with another couple of teams and slowly brought the break back. The break must have been absolutely trucking because the peleton wasn't mucking around and the gap wasn't coming back quickly. With 60km to go I attacked up a hill with Team mate Jase Christie who was 11th on GC. We got 30seconds on the group quite quickly but couldn't get much further. We stayed away for about 15km until being caught by the bunch. When we got caught the bunch was moving! The break got caught with 40km to go and the pace didn't ease off. In the last 40min we averaged 50kmph. With 1km to go I attacked the bunch going for 4th, but got swamped by the bunch with 100 meters to go.

Day Four

Wallaceville circuit 120km

After 3 tough days of racing my legs were starting to fatigue. I had a look at the circuit we were to ride the day before the stage, it wasn't pretty! One solid 1.7km climb followed by an undulating valley road and a steep descent before the flat road back to the climb past the finish line. 14km in total. 8 laps in total. I was quite worried about being dropped and losing my 22nd place on GC to be honest! When we finally got underway in the stage I felt fine and my legs rode into the race, after a couple of laps up the hill my legs were used to doing the effort. The last three laps up the hill were tough, I got dropped with a big group of guys each time, we managed to chase back to the front each time though. It started raining during the last two laps, which made the descent very sketchy and a lot slower. I was happy to make it down the last hill without incident and began to set up for the bunch kick. A group of three snuck away somewhere in the last lap so the bunch was sprinting for 4th. I left my run a bit late and claimed 7th in the stage.

Novie & Me, before Stage 3

This stage was the unofficial end to the tour and I was lucky enough to move into the top 20 during the stage. In the tour I placed 19th - 15min57sec down on tour winner George Bennett. A pretty good result for me being one of the biggest guys in the peleton, in a hilly tour. To put it in perspective in the Tour of Southland, a relatively flat tour compared, I was 64th.

Admiral Hill

Day Five

The Wellington City Criterium. 1 hour + 3 laps.

This stage was confusing for many in the tour. The tour could not include a crit under the UCI. so the crit was run as a semi seperate event that would not effect overall results, just the prizemoney. Quite confusing I know. The crit didn't go well for me. I started at the back, and for a tight circuit crit as a rule, you should never start at the back! It was very hard to move up, especially with a U-turn on Lambton Quay. I lasted about 40minutes of the race before pulling the pin. Not the best way to finish a good week but it was still a good hit out.

Admiral Hill

Next up for me is another Bikenz track camp in Invercargill next week. After this it will take me down one of two paths. One leads to Manchester World Cup, The other to New Zealand Track Nationals.

Thats all from me for now. Thanks for reading, Cam

Riding up the final climb on Day two, Admiral Hill

Riding back from stage 3

The BikeNZ team on day two

January, The New Year

2011-01-16T16:36:00.001-08:00

Take a deep breath, 2011 has begun, its going to be huge. Events have already been coming thick and fast, they aren't going to stop any time soon.

After a decent two week break with the feet up I had time to catch my breath after the rapid end to my 2010 season. I started training a few days before Christmas, it was all very light work in the first week before some decent hilly rides in the Marlborough Sounds leading up to the tour de vineyards. This was my 4th year riding Tour de Vineyards, as always it was a nice and cruisey week, although I have to say with the changes in stages it was a lot more challenging and aggressive racing.

With no real goals for the Tour as I went in with a weeks training under my belt, I expected no results in the week. Mostly for the hell of it I went for a few sprint premes in the first two days and picked up a few points. In the last two days, the sprint ace competition became more of a goal as I sitting in 2nd and only a few points behind. I managed to pick up more points over the last two days but missed out on the green by three points to Taylor Gunman.

Other positives I found from the tour was the 16km climb up Takaka on the 2nd stage. My goal was to ride the hill in 45mins and sit at my own pace instead of trying to match others, like the last 3 years. I managed to keep the 39x25 gear rather wound up the climb and collected a big group of riders over the distance of the climb. I missed out on my goal narrowly and rode a time of 45min50s but was pleased with how I felt and coming 30th in the stage (other years I would be in the last 20 or so riders). Feeling strong I rode back from the hill to Nelson to get some more ks in the bank, a decent 190km day.

My next event was the Elite road nationals held in Christchurch. First up was the 40km time trial, my main goal. I managed to have an Avanti Chrono organised for me courtesy of H&J Smith Invercargill. I got a couple of rides in on it before the day. The ride was hard! I have done a couple of 40km tt's in club racing before but don't remember any of them hurting so much. My best time would be a 56min. My goal was a sub 54min. Conditions were good and I managed to achieve my goal and ride a 53:05 for the distance. 8th U23 I was happy, my legs weren't! haha.

Onto the road race a few days later. I had a disappointing ride, though almost to be expected due to my road condition and nature of the course. I wanted to get through half the race to get a feel for it for the coming years, but didn't even last one lap up the climb, riding a total of 20kms.

Why I got dropped? my SRM showed me. 425watts for 5mins up the first climb.. and I lost more the 20seconds to the bunch. So next year I will have to be putting out the numbers to be riding with those boys.

Drive straight to Invercargill. The day after the road race a Bikenz track camp started. An "easy session" for the day. We got right into it with a standing 500m. I blew myself away at the time that I produced with a 33.32 on 104. I was asking myself, so after a stage race, a 40km tt, and getting dropped from the national road race, I pull out some track form. We then rode some Team pursuit 1kms and some other longer efforts.

The next day we moved onto some 1km power efforts. Seated kilos on an 110" gear. I could not believe how good I was feeling and managed to record a 1.04:6 for the kilometer, seated on a massive gear. (seated is in the seat from the start, instead of a standing start). After a few days with some longer rides and aerobic sessions the whole men's endurance team rode out to Gore for the Gore to Invercargill Handicap Classic. The whole team was on Scratch and with the limit markers having a 27min headstart for the 67km Journey we had a very good chance of catching the front. A blustery head/sidewind the whole way mad for some super tough conditions. Our scratch bunch collected and dropped the majority of the bunches we caught. Some riders of the scratch bunch fell victim to the lethal side wind and got dropped from the bunch. With 10km to go we had caught the front and the pace eased off slightly. With 5km to go the attacks started. riders came and went off the front of the bunch and some were bought back quickly. The move with 3km to go was Marc Ryan, Wes Gough and Jase Christie. They had a good gap which I then tried to bridge with Sam Bewely and Logan Edgar at 2km to go. Wagon didn't want to take me to the front with him so he sat on and hit me with just over 1km to go, taking Logan with him. I narrowly held off the bunch for 6th.

The racing at the carnival was a bit of a non-event for me as I was more focused on going my best in the training sessions during the day. I opted for a smaller gear than I would usually ride for the training benefits. I still managed to take one win in the non-qualifiers scratch race which I was pleased with.

Next up is the Tour of Wellington with the Bikenz Team, The first of many races we will do together. I haven't done the race or even ridden in Wellington before so it should be an interesting experience. One I hope I will enjoy and learn from.

That's all from me for now. Thanks for reading.

Cam

Whats Been Happening.

2010-12-10T17:59:00.000-08:00

I would love to sum up that title with a simple statement. Track, track, track.

The last few weeks deserve a little more detail than that though. . Where to begin..

Oceania Track Cycling Championships.

After a few weeks of track training, post Tour of Southland, I was on my way to Adelaide for the champs staying at the mighty Pavlo's Budget, Budget, Budget, Budget, Budget, Budget Motel. This trip was very significant for me as it was my very first outing for a New Zealand National team two years ago. Staying at the same motel really bought back a flood of memories. I have grown up in all aspects of my life since then. In two years I literally came from being a young U19, naive and semi talented cyclist from Malborough, who had no clue about track, to a member of the elite squad with direction and a Junior World title.

*Starting the kilo at the end of the Speedfest

In the few days leading up to Oceania's I was slightly worried at my lack of form, or that extra 5% I can usually pick up at the right time for these events. This time I had to make do, and make up for this in other areas of my performance. Unlike other trips this was my first campaign dedicated to teams pursuiting. My experience in the teams pursuit prior to the teams pursuit amounts to not much at all. My personal best for the "tp" was still 4.33:4 with a U19 southland team. The most valuable experience I could really only rely on was from having done a weekend in Ghent with the elite team pursuit boys doing standing kilos and flying 2kms.

*NZ TP at Melbourne for 3rd/4th

We got straight into training the day we arrived in Adelaide. It was quite obvious with my changes, pace judgement and how close to the wheel I was following that I needed to drastically improve if I were to be a part of the team. After putting some track SRM's on the bike it was obvious how much energy I was wasting in the wheels. I was both to far from the wheel and always off to one of the sides. It accounted for an extra 40watts over every ride, which is huge!

I had 3 days of teams pursuit training to improve my technique before competition. My event lineup was; the Kilo time trial on the Wednesday night, Individual pursuit Thursday afternoon followed by the scratch race that night. All going well I was to be included in the teams pursuit for Saturday.

*Riding on the front of the bunch at the Speedfest

The kilo, never the most enjoyable experience was first up. I was in the last heat with James Glasspool. The best time had been set by Commonwealth Games winner in the same event at a 1.02:6 behind him was out to a 1.04:8. So beating that time automatically would put me in the medals. I was aiming to do a 1.04:00 so the time was well within reach. I went out and rocked around in a 1.04:3 to take the bronze. I was slightly disappointed with my ride as I rode too fast in the first half and didn't have anything left in the last lap.

The next day I had to get myself ready for the Individual Pursuit(IP). One of my goals prior to oceania's was to set a new PB in the 4km IP and break the 4.30 barrier. That day it was quite obvious to myself that beating that time in my current condition was near on impossible.

Warming up I felt dizzy and slightly nauseous. Standing up to quickly would make me feel like blacking out. To make matters worse I was racing against Jack Bobridge in my heat. A guy you might remember from doing the fastest ever IP in history in the non-superman position and also commonwealth games IP winner. I had to put how I was feeling aside and step up to the pilot seat of my track bike and do the best I could. I started the IP slower than I usually would and tried to stay in control as possible, looking up at the lap counter and seeing 12(out of 16) to go and already hurting was not a good sign for the minutes to come. One by agonizingly one, the laps faded by as I hung on to the same lap times. Bobridge flew past me with 6 to go. I had nothing left to chase him but his draft was enough to lift me in pace to get to the finish. Surprisingly I managed to hold the ride together and stay fairly even for most of the way. Recording a 4.36.6 for 4km I still averaged a touch over 52kmph in my third ever 4km IP. The time was pretty much the same as my first ever 4km ip.

*To fast for the Camera. Team Pursuit

The scratch race was also later that night. Looking at the field I noted that it was rather small, just 7 riders, and also Cam Meyer and Leigh Howard were racing. World Champions in the Madison, Meyer is a triple world champion and double commonwealth games gold medalist.. The list goes on. I really had nothing to lose lining up against these guys. I started the race with an open mind ready for the next 60laps. Fairly soon the whole field of 4 guys was being one-two'd by the Meyer-Howard combination. Some one ahead of me dropped the wheel after about 30laps of the race and we worked in vain to try and catch back up to the last 4 riders. So after realizing there was no way back I was told to pull the pin and finish the race. Not a good day for me.

*On the front of the Team. Ross on the grey about to call lap split

After a day off to regroup some physical and mental edge I prepared for the Teams Pursuit Qualifying and Final on the Saturday. A lot of mental weight had been lifted for the event when I found out I had made the team for the Melbourne World Cup. Warming up for the qualifying I could tell I was feeling a lot better than the previous couple of days. I still felt a little dizzy, but nothing like my IP. The team of Myron Simpson, Aaron Gate, Jason Allen and I lined up and started the teams pursuit. We rode ok together, but nothing close to super smooth and drilled. We rode the 4km in 4.10:906 to qualify 2nd to the World Champion Australian who managed a 4.05.

The team lined up for the final with Shane "Novie" Archbold jumping in the team for Jase.

Same sort of ride in the final by the team, I went out a bit hard in my first lap and lifted the pace by half a second in a lap down to 14.7 for a 250m lap. (tad over 60kmph) I felt the effects of this in the last km of the effort and had to eject after my last lap with 3 to go. The team improved the qualifying time and rode a 4.08:280. The aussies smashed out a time of 4.02:270. We claimed the silver medal. Onto Melbourne it was from there.

*Coming out of the corner. Flying

Melbourne World Cup.

We had 3 days of track training to get used to the Melbourne Hisense velodrome. When I say get used to the track I mean, getting the lines nailed, how high/where to change, where the pressure can be applied and to feel the speed for pace judgement..etc. I struggled on the first day to really understand the track, it felt slow and very different to Adelaide's Superdrome.

The teams pursuit was held on the last day of competition, on the Saturday. That meant I had time to adjust to the atmosphere of the world cup and really soak in and understand the hype of the event. It was great to watch the other kiwi boys and girls really knocking it up and the track and doing really well. Highlights would have to be watching Myron and Gatey racing into Silver in the Mens Madison and Shane Archbold absolutely dominating the Omnium for Gold.

The night before the Teams pursuit the team was named and I was lucky enough to be put in ahead of the young Pieter"Huggies"Bulling. I had done slightly better than him in adjusting to the track. Novie was in amazing form so to leave him out of the teams pursuit would have been questionable.

*Starting our final 15 laps to go.

Qualifying. Seeing times of many teams going under 4.10 and some 4.05's I knew the team had to pull out a pretty quick tp. I started in 4th Position. I was perhaps not as nervous as I would usually get for such a big event, I think this is due to it being such a slow start(compared to a team sprint), and then being 4th wheel I have about 45seconds to settle in then focus on my first lap. I had gotten a lot better at being smoother and following closer to the wheel since Adelaide. This really helped my personal performance when it came to doing my laps. Hitting my first lap it was hard not to rip into it, I had to tell myself to float float float through the lap to keep it smooth. I was still riding faster than 60kmph when it felt like I was floating. I got through 3 of my laps before ejecting from the team with 3 laps to go. The team rode a quick time of 4.04:250. which is just shy of a 59kmph average. We had qualified 4th to race against the Great Britain team who rode a 4.02 for the Bronze.. I was happy with how I went and how I felt, though I did still feel like I could work on a few more things in the final.

The final was intense. We lined up against the Brits who had looked fairly edgy and all over the show in their qualifying to try and challenge them for the bronze medal. Once again we could only go out and ride as hard as we could as the underdog in the final.

During the ride the crowd was really getting behind us to beat the brits, They were becoming so loud that all I could really hear were a few calls which sounded a lot like "14.5" but I couldn't be sure with the roar of the stadium engulfing us. Once again I rode my laps smoother and this time I help hold/lift the pace when I came through. The team had planned for me to do a after burner lap on my third time on the front to lift the pace then pull off. I got to my third lap then dug in to increase the speed. I pulled up on the corner to yell three and deliver the team to the final few laps. I saw the boys get closer and closer to the brits. Gatey threw an absolute blinder of the last two laps pulling back close to a second. Hit the line and I struggled to see who had won. Unfortunately, the time was slightly slower than the brits .14 off the bronze medal. Our time though, a 4.01:605..

I would like to thank long term sponsors Peak Fuel and Spy Valley Wines for this campaign

Spy Valley wines have been supporting me for a long time now, provided me with some financial assistance.

Peak Fuel provided me with High performance energy gels and hydration supplements. These products were crucial in the heat of Australia to keep me hydrated and energised.

*Wes and I teamed up well for 2nd in the Madison

Invercargill Speedfest

The speedfest the week after rounded off a solid month of track. To be completely honest I had nearly completely forgotten about the event during Melbourne. My body&mind was in need of some much needed rest and recuperation. The event kicked off with the New Zealand Madison Nationals, for which I was yet to find a partner.. The day before, Westly Gough and I teamed up to ride the next night. We rode with no real plan of attack but with the goal of sticking up near the front and going for as many sprints as possible. This worked out quite well, but no one could stop the pair of Myron and Gatey from taking a lap on the field. I was going very deep and was bordering on having stitch on many of my turns.

After winning a few sprints we were in 2nd position. Which we managed to hold in front of the swiss pairing for the rest of the race. With mass start racing such as the Madison not in any of my success stories I was really happy with taking 2nd. Looking at my years plan, taking a podium spot was one of my goals.

*Third in the kilo at Oceania Games 2010

The next two days continued with a new format Omnium as the carnival. Time events were earlier in the day before the mass start events for the crowd at night. Prior to the event I did not like the idea of it as it sounded like there would be a bit of pressure to still perform. With a little bit of form I found the nights grew on me and I enjoyed myself and the racing. I managed to do well in every event except the points race, where I suffered from a puncture. But I recorded a PB in the 3km IP with a 3.23:05 for 7th. I claimed 3rd in the flying lap with a 13.750. 3rd in the kilo with a 1.04:777. 5th and 7th respectably in the Scratch and Elimination. General consistency in times and placings landing me in 5th Overall in the Omnium series.

*Starting the Kilo at Oceania Games

It is now time for me to have a good break off the bike until Christmas where I start ramping up for what is set to be a huge year. More news on next year soon.

Cam

Tour of Southland Experience

2010-11-16T19:29:00.000-08:00

Hi All.

Its been a wee while since I have updated this. When things heat up again I'll stay on top of it.

A few weeks ago I raced the Tour of Southland. I had a great time most of the week. I enjoyed getting amongst the racing and mixing it up with New Zealand's Best.

The racing was almost what I had expected of the week. I definitely expected more of the weather to sort some of those warmer climate blokes out a bit more. I did fatigue over the week but not so much as to make me feel like I couldn't start the next stage or start hating the bike. It was just a good solid week of racing.

I raced the tour with the Southland Times H&J Smith team. A young team of mostly Under 23 riders put together by Ross Machejefski. The team included(from left) Tom David, Me, Chad Adair, Ruaraidh Mcleod, Matt Marshall and Lachlan Shannon. Many of my good friends.

Our goal as the team was to help Matt on the flat so he could do his thing uphill and have a good chance at the U23 jersey and a good overall GC finish.

With Oceania's coming up I had to hold back in most stages so I was still in good nick by the end of the week. I could only target one day to have a decent crack and then for the rest of the tour I tried to shelter in the bunch to save the legs.

I targeted the 2nd day, the 165km stage to Gore. Early on I tried to instigate and follow some break away attempts after about an hour and many unsuccessful breaks later I gave it a rest and hoped for a bunch kick.

We ended up missing two riders still up the road by 14seconds, I still had a crack at the sprint but faded completely after running through a large patch of tar on the second to last corner.

Matt was frustratingly close to the U23 pink jersey for the first four days and on the fifth day to Te Anau, he unfortunately faded out of contention by not making the front group over the difficult Blackmount hill. Many of the team rode in the groupetto(last big group) or further back that day!

I am quite happy with how I went, I was able to ride up near the front for and slightly in the wind Matt the whole week. I was even able to have a couple of good digs off the front.

In the future I want to play a bigger role in this race.

This Saturday the 20th I head over to Adelaide, Australia for the Oceania track championships. I have been clocking up many hours down at the track riding in circles building up for the event.

I am part of the 8 strong elite men's New Zealand team. Of which 5 will head to Melbourne for the World Cup.

I am hoping for a good week on the track so I can be a part of this team.

Wish me luck!

Cust Benchmark Win

2010-09-27T15:19:00.000-07:00

The Cust Benchmark race was my first race back since returning from Belgium having a good week off the bike, then attempting to do some riding in the Icy cold Southland weather bomb. The H&J's Team had a good line up for the weekend with Marcel Baird, Dillon Bennett, Brehan Cairns, Lachie Shannon, Hamish Presbury, Hamish Tomlinson, Sequoia Cooper and my Girlfriend Beth racing.

The race began in Loburn, 30 minutes North West of Christchurch. Temperatures were in the early 20’s – Much warmer than the 3's or 4 degree rides I had done earlier in the week. The wind was only a slight breeze as the race got underway, but it was evident in the forecast that the wind was going to get gusty and strong. Hence why I rode Zipp 303's!

The race began with a 5km neutral section with a flurry of attacks following. A number of small breaks were established but in the strong headwind, nothing was ever going to stick. The first crucial part of the race was after 40km in the first crosswind/uphill section. A group of 15 had pulled away before the hill. Prez and I quickly jumped across the gap up the hill as the field was split in two before turning down the strong tail/side wind section. Going down the false flat of German road coming out from behind a line of trees several riders in the front group were blown across the road and into the grass by the strong crosswind gusts. It was crazy! I stuck to the left hand side of the road.

The fast crosswind section demolished the field creating huge gaps, and whittling the field down to a select group of around 25. Dbuzz(Dillon Bennett), Prez and I were the only H&J's riders to make the front group. With the select group now established at the front, riders turned off from the crosswind into a tailwind. We hurtled down the road in

excess of speeds of 65kmph, hopping over tree roots that grew under the tarmac. Dbuzz managed to attack off the front with Josh Atkins Andy Mackay and James Gibson. They built up a small gap before the short climb up Summerhill. Halfway up the hill I launched from mid pack to get a small gap on the field up and over the hill, chasing down the four riders.

After a quick decent with the small group in sight we then took a sharp left hand-turn into a 1.7km gravel section and howling crosswind. The loose shingle and crosswind whittled the field down even more as riders struggled to stay upright and on the road. I caught up to the leaders on the road at the end of the gravel. The group was now down to about 15 or so riders. Going back up the false flat of German road the field was again tested by the Gusty crosswinds. I made sure Dbuzz, Prez and I were near the front the whole time.

On the descent windy many riders were being forced off the road once again by the wind.we were then overtaken by the race manager’s vehicle, the red flag went up and racing was neutralized as the manager was concerned for rider’s safety. This neutral section continued for around 5km until the red flag was lowered and racing began once again.

In the fast tailwind section Dbuzz's bike had a mechanical. While going 65kmph he was trying to keep up in his 52 x 18! His legs looked a little like a blender spinning around. He eventually got dropped but with a bike change, managed to catch back on. With 50km to go Will Bowman from Benchmark was solo off the front. I drifted off the front of the select bunch and started to chase him solo. Once I had caught him we started lapping it out, waiting for another group to come across. We didn't have to wait long as Tom Hubbard, Dan Barry and Alex McGregor hurtled across the gap with the bunch no where in sight. Immediately we started working together and within 15km had built up a gap of 2 and a half minutes.

Battling hard we heard news of a chase group coming across the gap very rapidly, once the Benchmark pair stopped working we started losing 10 seconds for every km. With 10km to go we had 1min 20. Alex McGregor then punctured and it was up to me and Tom to step up and try and hold the gap, while the Benchmark pair still sat on. After hearing news that they were 40seconds back with 5km to go they started working again. It was agony trying to hold them off.

Coming into the final km Tom attacked and the Two Benchmarks were immediately on his wheel, they went around him before the corner into the final straight Will was setting up a leadout for Dan Barry. With 300m to go I kicked and accelerated ahead of the group on the other side of the road. After a couple of glimpses I saw it was mine and put my hands up for the win.!

The rest of the select group finished almost 5minutes down and groups started trickling in after that. The hard course and wind really took a toll on all the riders.

Looking at my SRM data. it is very evident that the style of NZ racing is very different to Belgium Kermesse's. My average's we a lot lower than I would have expected. 140km in 3hours 38mins with an average of 38.3kmph. Average power of 280 watts, normalized at 323. Longer, but a lot lower than that of Belgium racing. For the last 50km of the break we only averaged 290 watts, felt more like 350 to me!

It was a good feeling to come back from the Weekend with a win. Winning the Benchmark quenched my thirst after missing my chances in Belgium.

Thanks for reading, Cam

Putte Kermesse & Home!

2010-09-06T14:39:00.000-07:00

My last kermesse of the season, In Putte.

I can't say I was super motivated for the last race as I was quite set already on going home.

Without any support Chad and I had to take everything with us as we rode there and back to the race. The rest of the team was off too Bordeaux for a tour & a track camp.

The race was 30km away and started at 3. We cruised on over to the race, on a very decent day.

I thought I was going to struggle with sign on, as I had lost my Belgium & International license, so I had my National license and Drivers license just in case.

The organiser was pretty laid back and entered me from the system no trouble, too easy! He was pointing at names asking which one I was!

The race was 120km as per usual, not a very technical course, 13 x 9.2km laps, only two corners with cobbles.

The race got underway, and as planned I held back for the first 20mins while staying out of trouble up the front. After that had past I moved up towards the front and was very active in the next 40minutes. I made at least 3 breaks that looked like they had the potential to stay away, gaining more than 20 seconds on the field before falling apart.

This was very frustrating! I had no option but to move back and recover for a short period. Almost straight away a break went up the road. It always works that way for some reason!

This demotivated me quite a lot. For quite a while after this I just watched the Kms click down very slowly as I sat in the bunch. With 4 laps to go I started becoming more active once again. My sole motivation for the last 4 laps was to destroy the remainder of the main field. of 80 riders. Every 3km or so I was 'that guy' that just ramped up the pace to near 55 and held it for a short period in the hard sections. I didn't accelerate to quickly so people would hold onto my wheel. This proved to be quite effective. At least 50 or 60 riders had dropped off in 3 laps.

It also got me motivated to race hard, knowing I was making a mark on the race.

I then sat in for the last lap and played it smart. Trying to pick and choose the right moves. I got swamped in the last corner for the bunch sprint and came in around 5th spot in the bunch, which didn't really matter with so many up the road. I placed 33rd. I waited around for prize money thinking I could have been in the top 30 for 10 euro.

Me and Chad had a Duvel (Belgy beer) each to celebrate our last race as we waited around.

When I found out I hadn't got anything about an hour later we started riding the last 30km home in the twilight. It was good to get back to the base 180km after starting the day.

The averages for the day were pretty standard. 42.3kmph for 120km. Average power of 295watts, normalized at 330.

Over the next day we finished cleaning up, and packed everything up. We ended up throwing out a good 500euro of extra food that everyone had left at the base!!

It took all day and most of the night until 11pm.

It was good to have it all done and know I was going home the next day.

We woke up at 5am on Friday Belgium time. Long story short, it took the best part of 48 hours to land in Invercargill on Sunday afternoon 28hours of flying included. Waiting for the jet lag to kick in right now..

I had a good campaign, very lucky to avoid more crashes and sickness I anticipated. Didn't acheive my goal of a kermesse win, but came close a couple of times. I am sure I will have many more opportunities in the next couple of years.

Here is a list of my results from the campaign.

USA - Kutztown 19th - 12th June - July 21/6/10

5th 10km Scratch

2nd 5 lap Scratch

26/6/10

5th Mike Walter Madison,

2nd win and out

29/6/10

1st 15 lap scratch

1st Flying Mile

3rd 10mile Scratch

5th 25 lap points

1st Overall

3/7/10 Nanticote Crit

5th - Hayden Godfrey 1st(leadout)

4/7/10 Trexlertown derby

1st "Your nothing till you win the ttown derby" - Marty Northstein

6/7/10

3rd 3km Scratch

1st Super Sprint Elimin

1st Overall

9/7/10 Final Track Night

2nd 2km Scratch

5th Omnium Overall

10/7/10 Iron Hill Crit

50th + 1 prime

Belgium - Kermesses 12th July-7th September 17/7/10 Itegem Kermesse

42nd

21/7/10 Hulshout Kermesse

27th

27/7/10 Kapelle Kermesse

4th

3rd Points Comp

Leadout Jase Christie 3rd

1/8/10 Geel Kermesse

14th

2/8/10 Roosendaal Post tour

Crashed, DNF

10/8/10 Hoeleden Kermesse

18th

Broken 808,404.

15/8/10 Tielt Kermesse

22nd + 1 prime

21/8/10 Schaffen U23 Kermesse

3rd + 1 prime

(Myron 1st)

24/8/10 Booischot Kermesse

15th + 1 prime

(Dream 1st)

28/8/10 Pulderbos Kermesse

24th

(Shane Archbold 1st)

1/8/10 Putte Kermesse

33rd.

Looking to the future I have a lot of events coming up, including Tour of Southland, Track Oceanias in Adelaide. After a short rest for the legs and mind I will begin my next part of the year.

Thanks to those who helped my Campaign in America and Belgium.

My Parents & Family
Norm Wilson for providing Peak Fuel drink, gel and clothing products.
Steve Connell & Lilly for everything including supporting us at races & all the cooking
BikeNZ
Spy Valley Wines for custom kit.
Ross Machejefski for coaching me and everything in between.
Paul & Kate Tomlinson for my Health!
John Green and H&J's Smith for travel assistance and a lot of other help.
Cycle Surgery for bike parts, maintenance and advice.
Joscelin Ryan for the base and taking the team to and from races.
Jason Mckenzie & Academy Southland
ILT foundation for financial support.
Cycling Southland

Without these people and organisations this trip would have been impossible. Thank you for helping me chase my dreams!

Pulderbos Kermesse

2010-08-29T00:02:00.000-07:00

Yet another kermesse, hard to believe I have only done 10! seems like a lot more. I was part of the biggest kiwi line up for a kermesse in a while, Dream, Novie(Shane Archbold), Gatey(Aaron Gate), Myron and Chad.

We were part of a moderate sized field of approximately 90 riders.

The course was fairly technical in Kermesse terms. a lot of side wind sections, a U turn, tight S bends into a long side wind. and a long straight before the finish. We had the pleasure of riding the circuit 20 times. Which totaled up to a 114km race.

I am starting to recognize all the usual suspects at each race, easy to spot which ones usually make the break and how they usually do it. Then theres others that look strong but you never end up seeing them in the race.

For reasons unknown we had a half neutral lap, which was very sketchy as everyone was trying to move up on the tight roads. Especially when the road bottlenecked or when we went road a corner.

I avoided doing my typically full gas from the start. Which made starting the race much easier. My legs weren't feeling in amazing shape. I made the mistake of not going up near the front and working on the tight circuit. I was vulnerable to all the corners and cross winds in the circuit. once I finally got up the front I attacked solo off the front for half a lap, hoping a group would come across. The bunch just slowly dragged me in and I went right back into the middle of the bunch. The next lap a small group went off the front, including Dream, then a couple of other groups went off in chase, including Novie. The break of the day, once again I wasn't in it! quite frustrating.

After this I tried finding a comfortable spot in the bunch and let my teammates up the road get some time. I struggled to find a nice spot in the bunch as the pace was very consistent up the front, which made acceleration out of corners super hard, the crosswinds were full gas.

I got sick of this and made my way up to the front with Gatey and Myron. We started lapping through, not so hard to chase Novie and Dream but to protect ourselves. We worked for about an hour. We were lapping through with about 10 others. Always looking back to see what kind of damage we were doing to the bunch, without actually riding too hard! Somehow, we bought the break back into sight at about 20seconds. The break then saw this and put the gas on again to pull away from us. The bunch had been whittled down to about 40 or so riders with 2 laps to go. Thats when the cohesion at the front was gone and people started making there solo bid for glory and 13th place. A group including Myron and Gatey got away with 4 others. I didn't try to bridge so the bunch wouldn't follow me.

The bunch was really blown after this, about a lap to go everyone left looked spent. I tried to blow some more off the back in one of the last crosswind sections, winding it up over 50kmph.

I then moved back to about 10th wheel with 2km to go. It was a very messy bunch sprint. I managed to pick up 3rd in the bunch after closing a lot of the splits. I finished 24th overall.

Novie won after a bit of drama with a guy that wanted to buy the race off Novie for 300 euro. Novie told him where to go, as he wanted to win. The guy was racing in his home town and with 1km to go started getting really desperate offering Novie a contract with his team and 300euro. Novie just lead it out and won. Almost a fight after the race apparently!

The averages of the race were pretty standard. 43kmph average speed. for 114km.

Average power of 315 watts. Normalized at 353 watts. So pretty normal stuff.

3rd race in a row where a kiwi has won. Impressive stuff. I have one more race left. Maybe I will be able to finish up a good campaign with a result.

Ciao!

Booischot & Gent

2010-08-26T23:33:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone.

I have raced a Kermesse and done a two day track camp in gent since I updated you last.

Chad, Jase, Marc Ryan (Dream) & I raced a Kermesse in Booischot, not very far from the Blauberg base, the race started at 5:30pm, so we were all looking forward to starting a 140km day at 4 in the afternoon!

We rode to the race, no drama's, then the usual jazz of getting signed on and ready at a pub near the start line.

It was a windy day, so it was predictable that the wind was going to be a major factor in the race. The weather looked as though it was going to hold out and not rain for the second race in a row.

Everyone lined up in the town square, the field looked to be quite sizable with about 120 riders starting. I told myself before the race not to go blocks, but as the race started I just followed a quick wheel and the block break was away. Me, Jase and two other belgy's started doing hard laps, we quickly got out of sight of the bunch and still lapping hard.

We stayed out the front for about the first 15km, which we did in about 19minutes!

We were then caught by a massive group that had gone off the front. We started working with them straight away as the bunch was hot on our heels.

Unfortunately the break didn't stick.

Every lap of the race had a 10euro prime to race for, as we were caught I attacked off the front to chase down a Belgy that had gone from about 3km out. I went from 2km out and was pulling him back ever so slowly, he looked back at me and pretty much sat up with 500m to the line. As soon as I caught him, I kicked and went right round him to take the prime easy. Poor Belgy didn't know what to think and started yelling all kinds of flemish at me. I just looked at him and shook my head. He responded by attacking solo into a headwind.

I sat up and waited for the bunch to catch me. This ended a very hard first 40minutes of racing.

I averaged 380watts for the time!

After that I sat in the bunch, taking on some food and drink managing to avoid the wind in the cross and head winds. It was still quite hard going just sitting in the bunch in the windy conditions. Another 40minutes passed pretty quickly, during that time I missed the break of the day. I didn't even see it go! Luckily Dream was in it with 11 others.

After missing two bottles from Stu, I finally got a couple of changes right. After the break had gone the race was fairly uneventful, the bunch was still moving with a few of the teams sending riders up to the front to chase. At one stage I looked around to find I was last wheel! what a surprise! it took me about a lap to make my way back up towards the front. Trying to get as much shelter in the crosswinds while doing so. I wasn't in too much trouble at any stage.

Coming into the last few laps the bunch stopped working well together. From about 10km to go the bunch was very messy. People were attacking here and there, judging by the attitude of the bunch nothing was going to get away from the bunch.

To be honest I felt fairly tired and was lucky to stay in the top 15 of the bunch. Jumping on any moves and generally trying not to roll through like the rest of the bunch. Nothing or no one got away in the last cross wind sections. in the last 5km an aussie in the race said to me, "You don't get wind like this in Southland". I told him he would be lucky to get a day this calm actually!

In the tailwind section before the finish with 3km to go it was clear the whole bunch was going to go for the bunch sprint. I could see It was going to be very dangerous. I treated it like a proper bunch kick for the win. I stayed calm and sat about 5th wheel with 2km to go. We were moving fairly quickly. Surges on both sides kept happening. I was able to switch trains at the right time to the ones that were going faster. With some traffic islands in the mix in the last few corners it was dodgy stuff. Coming into the finishing straight with 1km to go I managed to switch trains again without getting swamped and boxed in on the inside. I was sitting about 4th wheel in the line - perfect. With 400m to go, just before the kick I felt a rider clip my back wheel. . . I held my bike up easy. I hesitated to listen for the lurch and crunch of riders hitting the deck everywhere behind me. I took off for the sprint a bit late and only took third in the bunch sprint for 15th. My bike felt very strange! I stopped down the road and lifted my bike up.. My back wheel fell out! phew! The guy that clipped my wheel must have undone the skewer!

About 15 riders crashed. No Kiwi's though, so that was lucky. It's very important to be at the front or right at the back in Belgy bunch sprints.

Dream took the win off his breakaway companions. Another good win for the Kiwi's !

http://new.wiebovlaanderen.be/Default.aspx?tabid=373&S=Competitie&WedstrijdNummer=1846&Datum=24082010

The averages for the day were: 2hr51m for 120km = 42.1kmph. Noting the windy conditions.

Average power of 315watts. Normalized at 347watts - solid and very typical power for a kermesse.

Heres a photo of me and myron coming 1st and 3rd at the Schaffen Kermesse.

The day after Booischot kermesse I was lucky enough to be a part of a two day track camp in gent with the commowealth games track team.

On the first day we had some standing TP kilos and a standing 500 on big gears. I was able to pull out a 34.2 for a standing 500m, on a 110 inch gear. I was quite surprised to be fair!

It was good to be a part of full gas TP kilos all on double discs. Steep learning curve, but the best way for me too learn.

We went out for dinner in Gent and then stayed the night in a nice hotel.

My legs felt quite sore the next day I woke up, probably due to the 3 hard days in a row.

30mins on the rollers after a buffet breakfast and they were feeling a lot better.

We went into Gent for a quick look and lunch.

Headed down to the track for the session starting at 5. As we were ready for the first effort it started raining and the track vents were open, the track got a bit wet! We had to wait half an hour till the track had completely dried up. Can't take any risks on the tires we were using.

I led in a few 2km flying team pursuit efforts and also ran through a couple of flying kilos as a 2-up.

Once again I learnt quickly how to TP change at high speeds on double disc's. I was able to hold the pace for the boys but wasn't feeling super comfortable on the bike and mucked up a couple of the efforts. Me and Dream managed to set the fastest flying kilo time. I will need to work on and improve a couple of things before another session like that again. I learnt a lot, it will come in handy at the end of the year.

After the session we headed back to Blauberg. I was fairly well spent.

Got a recovery day today, so the legs can feel better after their 4 day bashing. Into another kermesse tomorrow, hopefully I'll be able to light that up!

Thanks for reading again!

Schaffen Kermesse

2010-08-21T22:51:00.000-07:00

A good result & another successful day completed.

The Schaffen U23 Kermesse, 6 years ago Mark Cavendish got a "textbook lead out from his teammates", to win the same kermesse. Yesterday Myron Simpson won and I got 3rd. A great result.A hot day for us in Belgium, Myron and I were the only kiwi's getting out to race, Jase and Chad are sick.

We cruised out to the race which wasn't too far away, it took a bit of exploring to find where the race start was in the town. We ended up riding one lap of the circuit.

Stu found us and motor paced us round the rest of the circuit.

We signed in, collected our numbers, got ready, the usual routine. A medium sized field of about 90 U23 riders lined up and I started up near the front.

The race then got underway, almost straight away an attack went, I followed it. We got a small gap but nothing that was ever going to stick. Through the tight forest section I went again with a small group which got out to about a 30 second advantage, before being shut down. I kept attacking and being aggressive throughout that first 20minutes or so. I then sat up into the

bunch seeing that they were being very active at chasing threatening breaks. After about 40kms of racing into the 117km race I went to the front up one of the main rises to the finish and sat at a solid power the whole way up. A small group sprinted for a prime, a chase group followed that, I

didn't like the look of it, as soon as I saw a gap I jumped across the gap. I was one of the last riders to go across. A group of 20 riders off the front then formed. Which, in Belgium, can either

spell a successful break a fast catch. It took about 5mins for the group to get organised. Luckily the bunch behind looked equally unorganised for the crucial time. Once everyone in our group had rolled about 3 or 4 times, we were away, no chance of being caught. Within about 3 laps - 18km we had easily put 2mins on the bunch. It was pretty tame for the rest of the race, with a five euro prime each lap the only thing disrupting the break from working.

A highlight of my race was when Stu did a double bottle change with Me and Myron. I was on Myron's wheel and saw that we were both going for a bottle, some how Stu managed to get us both at the same time. I have never done or seen a change quite so skilled.

The race up the front in the last two laps was much less aggressive than an open kermesse. I managed to take a prime with two laps to go, noting that it was easy to come from 4th wheel in the headwind, after the climb. I also noted that we had a team with 4 riders, and a team with 3 riders in the break. In the last lap Myron said we had to be aggressive in chasing breaks, as they went. That is exactly what we did, we kicked to get on anyone who tried to attack as they were going. Only a couple of riders tried their luck at attacking. There weren't any crucial stages

where everyone was on the rivet though. I shut down a lot of the breaks in the last half a lap. I then sat on the front, not too hard, but not easy through the tight forest section, then as the group surged up the last little climb I slotted into 5th wheel. Myron leading up the last half of the rise. The group then kicked and a russian jumped ahead of Myron and I held my Position. We absolutely flew round the last 2 corners into the 200m straight. The russian almost slid out

ahead of Myron. I saw him kick ahead of the russian, I stepped out and went past the two in

front of me. It was a long way to the front, I was in a smaller gear than I usually sprint in. I was coming up quickly on the russian as I saw Myron salute for the line. I didn't really think about it, but threw my hands up as well... we were in different kits, so that probably wasn't etiquette, oh well.. It would have been tight for second had I not done it.

Tonight the race will be broad casted on Belgium TV. I did a lot of work, especially when the motorbikes were watching. It will be quite cool to see the race on T.V, it will be a good bit of coverage hopefully.

My Averages today were 44.7kmph average - 2h33m for 117km. it was quite a quick course only one slow corner, also with warm conditions. Average power of 295 watts, normalized at 331 watts. slightly lower than a typical race here, I expect this was due to the heat taking its energy toll and also the fact that it was an U23 race. I am happy to get my first podium in Belgium, and be part of Myron's first win in Belgium. I have only got a few more chances for a better result before I head home. I won't be holding back.

Cheers, Cam

Go time.

2010-08-21T02:08:00.000-07:00

I'll keep this short. Not many races left, it's time for me to really dig deep and get a result. Today is a great opportunity. Schaffen kermesse. It's an U23 race not far from the base. Likely to be a rolly circuit, 17 x 6 km laps. I believe that it was one of Mark Cavendishs wins early in his career. The flowers from the win are still in the base! Hows that for motivation? The plan today is going to be sit up near the front early on, when I can sense the bunch start hesitating to chase, I'll launch a very solid attack. Form a group. Stay away till the end.

Tielt Photos

2010-08-18T10:08:00.000-07:00

Here is some photo evidence to support the claim of " the wettest race ever".

*Feeling strong and fit during race

*Trying to instigate the break, no success

*Riding the front on slippery corners

*One of the smaller cracks in the middle of a corner

*Big field supported by a few locals.

Cheers Tony Lem for the photos!

Tielt Kermesse

2010-08-16T00:38:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone.

Yesterday me and the boys raced the Tielt Kermesse. It was one of the wettest races I have ever done. We left with plenty of time to spare after learning from our mistake at Hoeleden. Still without a car we are riding to and sometimes back from most of our races, which is good.

We found sign on in the typical Kermesse setup of a pub, got our race numbers, no trouble there. As we walked out of the pub, 30minutes until the race started it started spitting. Another rainy race day, what a surprise...

Me and Jase found shelter before the start under some random Belgy's umbrella, he didn't seem to mind to much.

The closer it got to the start the more the clouds opened up. It started to get a wee bit cold! Looking at my SRM, it was still 17 degrees.. soft!

The race got underway and immediately I attack with a small group. I don't really know how it happened but about 1km down the road we took a wrong turn due to some of the marshalls not giving clear instructions. I skidded to a stop and started turning around to see half the main field hurtling in my direction. I managed to avoid someone skittling into me by the slightest of margins. He still managed to clip my knee.

After rejoining the race I was too far back in the bunch. It took about a lap of fighting for wheels and picking my way up to get back into the right position. It is noticeably harder riding in the back half of the bunch. Once again some of the corners and fast straights felt like riding on ice, just the slightest wrong movement and you'd be on the ground. I saw no crashes fortunately.

Lap two I absolutely fed it too the bunch to get the 20euro prime on offer at a line. I rode at over 60kmph down a quick section before the finishing straight. I managed to pick up the prime over some Belgy who bridged over in the finishing straight.

After the line a small group formed and we put time on the bunch pretty quickly. Was this the break of the day? No, unfortunately not. The break didn't work well together up some of the climbs and split up too much to get away. The race then settled down a bit after we got caught. Small groups kept going away but not threatening to stay away. After the quiet spell the race got very messy. I can't really report on what happened after that, I didn't even know myself I was just following wheels, and doing wee stints on the front up some of the climbs and through the slippery corners.
Me and Myron did a lot of work on the front, chasing or setting the pace, I wasn't even sure sometimes. It settled down in the last 4 laps, we had Jase up the road in the group, I didn't even see a group go! I was going to wait for the bunch kick and try to do that right for once. Jase was still up the road and I was sitting in a good position for the whole last lap. I jumped at the right time on the right wheels, I managed to kick and was very close to taking the bunch kick had the dirty Belgy not tried to put me in the fence when he saw me coming. Not worth the risk for 21st place, instead of 22nd.

Jase ended up 16th and Chad 27th, I was 22nd, frustrating not to be in the break again after trying so hard to make it.

The belgy's found it quite amusing we didn't have anything to change into after the race. We rocked up to prize giving in bare feet and towels - hopefully we don't all get colds. Luckily Jos gave us a ride home.

My averages for the day were 41.3kmph for 117km = 2h50m. (Hilliest kermesse circuit I have done)average power of 330watts, normalized at 370watts. Thats right up there in power terms!

I haven't felt that strong in a race in a while. All good signs!

Everyone is heading to Antwerp today for a tourist excursion on our rest day. Should be a good trip will have to take some more photos.

Thanks for reading, Cam

Kermesse Photos

2010-08-12T12:49:00.000-07:00

*Racing on the "icy" pave of Holland, Myron following me

*Chasing Myron after an sketchy corner in the wet.

*Meeting another down poor head on. Not as many left up the front as I thought!

*Feeling right at home in the rain, Canal on right of picture

*Coming into the final lap of a big 160km kermesse

Hoeleden Kermesse

2010-08-12T01:31:00.002-07:00

Another day in Belgium, another Kermesse raced.

On Tuesday this week Chad, Myron and I made our way over too a small place in the flemish countryside called Hoeleden.

We left our run to the town a fraction late and had to go quite hard to make it too the sign on before it closed at quarter to 6! We started getting lost and as we drew nearer to the town, realised we had no idea where the race was or where sign on was. Luckily we found it, just in the nick of time.

We rushed to get our numbers on our jerseys, bikes and final adjustments.

We stood up hopped on our bikes and literally lined up on the line. Hows that for timing?

Starting the kermesse we got to see a little bit of the circuit. I thought we were neutralised at the start but the roads were just too narrow for anyone too chase the first few attacks.

Within about half of the 8km circuit a massive break had formed up the road, It was frustrating, I wanted to get there but the road was completely blocked up.

There were a couple of stints where I finally got to the front and helped chase or get a small group to bridge, It was almost pointless with at least 15 riders up the road. I gave up and sat in the bunch for a good half hour. As it started raining...(why does it always rain when we race!?)

I made my way to the front away and gave it a wee brrrrrrrrp up one of the longer climbs in the back of the circuit. It gave me a good gap, so I kept going and fairly soon a group of 8 formed up the front. The bunch was still sitting up so our chase group built up a decent gap on the rest. We were out of site very quickly. It took the group about 20mins to bridge over to the break, which now numbered about a third of the whole field!

The group was very dysfunctional up the front. Surprise surprise.. Only about 8 or 10 of the riders were working at the best of times. I sat in a lot, ate my food and did my share of the work.

With 32km to go, 4 laps of the circuit. The first of the attacks started to come, this destroyed any existing group effort. The break splintered up every climb sending one or two off the back, but mostly coming back together. I spent a lot of the time covering jumps in the last 30km, going full gas to lessen the likelihood of a small group going away for the win. After getting tired of this, I went to the middle of the pack, leaving my role to some one else. They didn't do a very good job, whoever it was and let 2 riders go straight away.

I kept sitting in there, thinking if it comes back together i'll go for the win but if not i'll just settle for top ten. I wasn't to phased to let some one else do a bit of the work for once.

The two off the front really gassed it away from the bunch and I could see that we weren't going to bring them back. Unfortunately I missed a group of 5 riders that went on a pursuit after them with a lap to go. Still I waited for some one to do something, nothing happened. We raced around the circuit for the final lap. I got up towards the front with 2km to go and finally the front with 1km to go, (much too soon). about 5 wide around some of the last chicanes I just lifted the pace enough to string it out through the last two corners before the finishing straight. I tried to lift it for the sprint but had nothing. Got out of my seat, still nothing. I fought my way to the line and placed 18th.

The averages today were 40.7 for 120km = 2h57m. average power of 322watts, normalized at 360w. This on top of the other 50km done during the day equals a super hard day.

The results are here:

http://new.wiebovlaanderen.be/Default.aspx?tabid=373&S=Competitie&WedstrijdNummer=368&Datum=10082010

Our next Kermesse is on Sunday, till then I will be doing some hard specific training out on the cruel Belgium roads.

Thanks for reading, Cam

Roosendaal Kermesse

2010-08-04T03:44:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

On Monday we all rode over to Holland to race an amateur kermesse before a post tour criterium.

The ride to Holland was uneventful we just cruised the 80km in about 3 hours drinking and eating as much as we could.

Upon arrival we struggled to find the registration, It was not even on the course. After a lot of mucking around and asking for directions we finally found it and signed in. A lot of riders were entered for the race.

After getting all our food, numbers and race wheels ready we set off around the course, back to the start line. The course's surface was horrible!

The course started in the middle of town, followed a tight twisty road out, then followed a canal for less than a km, across a bridge then back the other side, all on old shiny pave cobbles. The course then met back in town then did a small detour around and out to a main road, the main road was smooth tarmac with a number of white lines running over the road. It then looped back up to the start finish line. Smooth tarmac accounted for 400m of the course.

On the start line all the riders were lined up pushing and shoving to get as close as possible to the front. People were already packed lining the barriers drinking jupiler, smoking and eating fritz & mayo. The commentator was interviewing a few riders over the loudspeaker, all I could here was dutch. Just before we got underway the commentator said, "Tiesto!" Then loud euro disco-tech music started pumping over the speakers, rattling everything.

The race got underway and it was full gas from the start. Due to the tight circuit every rider was fighting for a place as close to the front as possible. It was the first race I have done overseas where getting to the front was very hard. I don't think I even did one lap.

Then the worsed happened. It started spitting, then the rain came bucketing down! It had an immediate effect on race and a good 30 riders on the back just pulled the pin.

Puddles were everywhere on the course, every corner was a hazard, even the straights were dangerous. The slippery and bumpy pave felt like ice as I was almost getting bucked off my bike by some of the cobbles and manhole covers.

Then finally one lap on the smooth tarmac with white lines I hear ssssssssssswaaaaaaaaaaaaaaassh and I look two wheels back a rider slip out and take down at least 20 others. I was in a small group of about 30 that didn't go down.

After this everyone settled down and a few small groups managed to bridge up. On the cobbled corners we must have been going less than 20kmph for a slight kink in the road. I started moving up to the front 15 to avoid any further danger. Then on the smooth tarmac I altered my line slightly and possibly pedaled to early. Before I knew it I was sliding along the ground, I was thinking, am I imagining this or did that just happen!?

I took 4 other riders with me. I was not as scarred up as I initially thought. I had a nasty deep graze on my left hip. Its still sore!

I had no chance of chasing back on so I pulled the pin and went and got cleaned up. Not a great end to a race, but hey, I had come to terms with the fact that I was pretty likely to have a crash over here at some stage, lucky its not going to effect me for very long.

We waited around for the pro race and I had my first taste of fritz & mayo, was ok.

The festival within the race was quite a scene with a full blown concert and big screens video the race. People cramped into the big town square drinking and smoking. Quite a good atmosphere for a bike race!

No SRM data from this race unfortunately. I don't think it would have been very impressive due to the amount of free wheeling. I would have liked to know how fast I went down though!

Thanks for reading!

Geel kermesse

2010-08-01T12:02:00.000-07:00

Hi all.

The boys and I just had a kermesse in Geel today.

The course was 3.1km around the outskirts of Geel. We were lucky enough to do 34laps of the circuit.! The circuit was really dodgy! in the middle of the back start were two curbs and going 50kmph we had to jump up the curb to avoid smashing our wheels.

We also had a 4 tight right hand corners. One in which was on cobbles and also a drop down one of the small curb.

A small field set off and I was quite active at the start.. It was quite a long time before a small break set off. Unfortunately I didn't pick it. It was the one that got away!! The whole field appeared to be in a state of shock as the break just wandered on up the road. luckily Jase managed to get into it.

I tried to bridge about midway through the race with two others. We stayed away for more than 20km. It was quite clear that we weren't going to make it across the break and were just plugging away in no mans land.

I went back to the field and had a feed of some of my race food and just relaxed in the middle with Myron. In the last few laps we planned a lead out for the bunch sprint! I ended up going off the front with another rider with 6km to go. We gapped the field pretty good. Another rider also bridged across to us later on.

They both sat on me in the finishing straight.. Dirty belgy's

They started the sprint but I came back at them quickly. just in the nick of time!!

The biggest throw for 14th! Jase was unlucky not to win and held on for 2nd.

Chad punctured and Myron placed 39th.

The averages today were 169 heart rate. 43.5kmph for 103km. average power of 295watts, normalized at 333w. Quite a hard day, I didn't feel at my best.

Tomorrow we have another kermesse. We are riding to Holland to ride in an amateur race before another post tour crit which we will be staying to watch.

Will tell you how it goes.

Ciao!

Photos from Belgium

2010-07-30T02:38:00.000-07:00

*One of the many cycle paths that turn to dirt

*Confidus rider, racing in a post tour crit in Herentals

*Liquigas rider going through an arch

*Ivan Basso the Giro Winner

*The Famous Fabian Cancellera with Anthony Charteau KoM TDF

Jurgen Van den Broeck - Very popular in Belgium after TDF

Fabian was paid 40,000 euro to race this crit..

*Basso was pretty stoked to be there

Even though most post tour crits are more of a show than an actual race, they still lit it up even so often. The winner of the crit is usually predetermined for the riders. It was well worth the trip to go and experience the atmosphere and hype of the race.

The race was expectantly won by Jurgen van den Broeck. With Cancellera in 2nd and Charteau in 3rd.

Very predictable! but I doubt many of the crowd cared!

The back of the house

Backyard

Living room

View down the street

Looking down to the church in middle of town

Sun room

View from the street. Note dairy next door!

Living room

Various trophies won by previous residents including Mark Cavendish and Bradley Wiggins

16 very steep steps to the bedrooms.

Chad's and my room

Kapellen photo

2010-07-29T01:26:00.000-07:00

Kapelle Kermesse

2010-07-27T23:08:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

Will write up about the latest kermesse before I take some photos of the base and around some of our rides.

We had been pre-entered into a kermesse in Kapellen. We had to look up the Google maps to find out where to go, turn out it was a few km's north of antwerpen. 50km using the quickest route.

80km later after much zig zagging and referring to the map we rolled into Kapellen.

Looking at the course. We were in for a 2km lap with 2 left hand corners and a left hand U-turn.

35 laps of 2km = 70km

80 people were entered for the race.

The Bikenz team of Chad Adair, Myron Simpson, Jason Christie and I rolled around the course a couple of times before lining up at the start, there were 4 pubs on the course and already a decent

number of spectators on the course.

The race started and a couple of laps later it was very evident that it was going to be a super hard race, those at the back were going to really struggle.

Early on I started getting stuck into some work at the front, covering moves and trying not to ride the front as usual. I did end up doing quite a lot of pace making early on once again, but on this circuit it wasn't such a bad thing.

I'm not sure when it happened but the field split and 15 of us got off the front. Soon enough that started to wittle down with the pace that was being set by about 8 of the bunch.

Every few laps a race organiser waved a green or white flag or held the white flag out to the break. Me and Jase had no idea what was going on, but the commentator, crowd and other breakaway companions started getting quite excited when this happened. When a few of the riders sprinted really hard for the line I usually went with them and sometimes also got cheeky by sprinted past them.

About halfway through the race, the sky opened up and rain bucketed down drenching us and the course, making every corner really edgy. Yes I did clean my bike the day before!

The rain made those at the back of the break really struggle even more, it narrowed down to 7 riders. It wasn't easy going and those dirty belgy's weren't working very well. for example. I was on the front of the break. A solo rider sprints past on the gutter, I chase, soon catch him, he turns and looks at me, sits up then yells something about doing work - just ridiculous, but this is Belgium and why the racing is so good for us.

I ended up doing so much work at the front I won the respect of a drunken fan club on the U-turn corner. Every time I went past they were yelling Caamarooon Kaawoshi, Goooooo! It was quite funny but also motivating!

It was panic stations for me and Jase in the break with 20min to race as 3 of the stronger riders got up the road with a 5 or 6 second gap. 5 or 6 seconds is a big gap on a small circuit like that. We had to absolutely drill it too pull them back and remain in contention. More attacks from the riders in the break kept going, we had to shut them down as soon as they went to minimize the risk of a break staying away as the race was coming down to the last 5 laps.

It slowed down and became a lot easier, I started getting very excited and nervous for the last few laps. I had a wee chat to Jase, he wanted me to help him go for the win, I was quite willing to give it a go. with 2 laps to go I was on the front with Jase on my wheel I was setting a good tempo to ward off attacks, and if an attack did go I would have been warned by Jase and then jumped onto it. None went and we came into 1km to go and I started ramping up the pace. Two of the Belgians attacked just before the last U-turn. I moved left to shut them down and give them a massive hook. Jase actually smashed into one of the guys! We came around the U-turn with 400m to go and Jase sprinted past the front, I sprinted a bit spent and starting to cramp up. I painfully watched Jase get passed by two of the Belgians I came up behind Jase and finished in 4th, dropping the other 3 riders in the break.

Gutted not too win or have Jase win, but glad to know I am there or there abouts and can get amongst it in the racing. A win is definitely possible in the next two weeks.

I got 3rd in the points competition I didn't know about, or really compete for, just goes too show how close to the front I was the whole race!

So another big day, another good result, progressively better so far, lets see If I can go one more step for a podium or win..

My averages for the kermesse were; 43.6kmph for 72km, 181bpm heart rate - wow. 343watt average for 1hour40m. Normalized at 370watts. which is a massive reading. Much more intense and difficult race - compensating for the tight course and short race. Hopefully will be able to find some photos from this race so I can finally show you the pain!

Cheers, Cam.

Hulshout Kermesse

2010-07-21T23:52:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

I am getting more set up and into the routine over here in Belgium, settling in to a good pattern of training, racing and watching the Tour de France. It's really quite a good lifestyle!

Yesterday I rode my second Kermesse in Belgium. It is a massive learning curve, I have yet to work out many aspects of the racing, for example - where to sit safely in the bunch without hitting the front and burning matches.

The race was 162km long - 100miles.. and started 20km away from our home base, a 200km day!

Too make the day even harder, we had to sign in early before the start, we left home at 11am - started the race at 2pm, finished at 6pm waited for results till 7pm and arrived home at 8pm. Talk about a long day!!!

Yesterday was some sort of holiday for Belgium so literally thousands of people lined the course and finishing circuits. I may have underestimated all the hype that goes on around kermesses as we had full road closure, convoy, motorbike support and marshalls on traffic islands with whistles, this race was the real deal..

We started a 120km open circuit around the region just as the sky opened up, once again proving my theory that if you clean your bike, it will probably rain the same day. Fresh rain on dry roads spells disaster for bike racing, everyone was extra cautious around corners and there were still many crashes! I felt my back wheel slide a couple of times..

The race started off fairly tame, I didn't feel very comfortable sitting at 40th wheel at close to 50kmph, even though there were 170 riders!

Very early on I started getting stuck into the race and had a good 30min period of constant attacking and following fast wheels, sometimes just shy of 60kmph! A group of about 20 of us started building a good gap before it got shut down.

The race stayed in a similar format for the majority of the race after then with small attacks as the paced slowed and then chasing and counter attacks. I was always there or thereabouts at the front chasing something down or making the pace fast out of corners and technical sections. The only problem about hitting the front is that you almost get stuck there until some one makes an attack and few start chasing and countering! I wouldn't have fallen more than 50riders back the whole race. The only key moment on the 120km course would have been the big split when 60 riders magically went off the front, I don't quite know how this happened but it appeared that a healthy co operative break was up the road and many groups of 10 or more started bridging, this left those 110 or so "free riders" at the back of the field who thought they could race without hitting the front in a bit of trouble, 4 minutes down.

Another crucial point in the race was a 1km cobbled section, not knowing when or where the section was, was quite a gamble on my part. It should have been evident it was coming up as most of the 60 riders started trying to jump up the curb to the bike path, I was one of many 20 left on the road itself.. I was fairly confused as to what was going on!

As we hit the cobbles I started getting bucked up and down on the bike. To avoid this I quickly rode to the side of the road following others riding in the gutter, managing to avoid planted traffic islands that sometimes interrupted the gutter and forced us back on to the cobbles.

To all those back in NZ thinking that they are "bad ass" riding gravel roads like they are cobbles, I am sorry but you are very mistaken, the cobbles are a lot like constant potholes or much worse speed strips that you see on state highway!

Reaching the finishing circuit of 6 x 6km my legs still felt good, but I kept getting stuck on the front! Chad had crashed out on course then was unable to get back to the bunch. Only Jase Christie and I were the remaining kiwi's. The course was quite tight, and rewarded those with aggression, So me and Jase kept on attacking and counter attacking moves, quite relentlessly. I managed to get hold of my feed bag and a couple more bottles after that. I was not cracking with all the food and drink I had taken on over the day..

Heaps of yelling and whistling was audible coming from the back as the pace slowed up, arguments in Flemish all over the bunch, found it quite funny when a couple of guys are going nuts and not being able to understand it. I got told by this guy in Quickstep kit who I hadn't seen anywhere near the front the whole race, "take some more laps, you don't know how to ride" etc etc.. I told him to look behind, tell some one else, as I felt like I had been doing more work than others!

One lap to go Jase managed to get off the front and I had the opportunity to go with him, but the bunch probably wouldn't have let us go..

It was very likely I was going to get swamped by the sitters in the last lap so I had to fight for a good position in the bunch in the last few corners, The pace was really heating up and the bunch was surging on either sides with one corner before the final straight. I was right there with 1km to go. I hit the front with 800m to go to avoid getting boxed in, I wound it up to 55 before the corner, glided through the corner and kicked again, I could see some wheels behind me but no one was coming yet, I was giving it death! I was picturing a sprint in the Tour de France at the time, which was probably not a good idea. with 50m to go I got swamped on the left by about 6 guys, which was frustrating but what can you do with such a long sprint.

I placed 27th, there were more guys up the road than I had thought, Jase placed 12th. I cashed in a massive 10 euro in prize money, woooo.

We cruised the 20km home and it was 200km on the dot!

In the race we averaged 45kmph. 169bpm heart rate once again. 298watts for 3h36m. Normalized at 331watts. (Normalized accounts for all the free wheeling and power spikes) last race was exactly the same. So both races were at similar intensity.

So my first top 30 placing in a Kermesse. Next race I will come back stronger and be more conservative, see how many watts I can take off the average! Make that one attack late in the race count.

Cheers, Cam

Belgium

2010-07-18T08:15:00.000-07:00

The last and longest stop of my trip, the Belgium phase. It has begun and I will be here for the next 7 weeks.

Right now it is just Me & Chad at a big home base in Blauberg, Belgium. The house has everything; big garage, backyard, kitchen, laundry, lounge, 2 bathrooms and 4 bedrooms.

I will take some photos when Myron comes back from a 6 day in Italy.

Blauberg is a really small village with little to do or see, just a church, couple of houses, pubs and a diary. After about an hours worth of riding here I came to the conclusion that it is close to completely flat, and very predictable and repetitive scenery. Not that I'm complaining, a village every 2-3km is euro as!

Once again, I'll take some photos of what I see!

On Saturday we raced our first Kermesse. With the help of Steve Connell we found where the race started in Itegem. A brief and brutal down poor on the way to the race reminded us of the shite weather back home!

The atmosphere at the race start was quite strange to be honest. Speaker systems set up along the street playing slow old euro music, a outdoor pub setup with BBQs and tables was next to the finish line. People smoking and drinking everywhere. Also the smell of soap and washing powder overuse was drifting off everyone.

The race was 120km long, 14 x 8.5km laps. The lap consisted of 5 right hand turns (that were a complete sprint out of). 100 meters of cobbles in a tail wind section and a short crosswind section.

Not knowing what to expect I was quite nervous for the "constant and relentless pace of kermesse racing".

From the start it was quite easy, I was right up near the front. No one did anything for half a lap, Then fairly soon it was attack after attack after attack, I would compare it to a club race in NZ where every man and his dog is going 100% and absolutely hates each others guts, therefore unwilling and incapable to work together. I would hate to see these guys doing a handicap race haha!

I felt really strong. I rode my training wheels, and was constantly up the front or actively working to get to the front. On the front I was typically doing 400-450 watts, which felt quite comfortable. Out of each corner I was doing 1200 watts, partly due to my inability to glide around the right hand turns and dropping the wheel, I soon got into the rhythm of it though.

A big break got up the road quite early on and I thought that would have been the end of it, as if by magic it came back in the last 30km.

That next lap another break went up the road which I missed somehow! it seemed like the only break that went was the one I didn't chase! Coming into last few km before a lap to go everyone was taking flyers, people I hadn't seen during the duration of the race. I thought, damn this last lap is going to be difficult! Everyone started sprinting for the line and I realised that we must be going for the finish. Turned out the organisers didn't have a bell to indicate a lap to go, or do they even do that in Belgium? Anyway a lot of Belgy's were raging, not sure what about though - might be the norm! I was pretty frustrated not to go for the sprint as it would have been satisfying to go for a top 30 placing in my first outing, theres always next time. Chad didn't quite make it to the end and pulled out with 3 laps to go.

6 hours after we left for the race we arrived home having done 160km, quite a big day in the office. Legs very very sore and hungry for some fuel.

My averages for the Kermesse were; 43kmph avg for 112.5 km. 169bpm, 303watts 2h37m. - with my SRM I can measure the amount of power I put out over a race, therefore showing how hard I have worked. I will make a note of each these averages after each kermesse to show the difficultly of each race.

I am super motivated to win a Kermesse before I go home. By the way I feel at the moment, it shouldn't be to far away.

My next Kermesse is on Wednesday. 120km circuit, followed by 6 x 6km laps = 160km. Quite long but i'll give it a go!

Thanks for reading !

Photos

2010-07-15T05:13:00.000-07:00

Iron Hill Criterium + Track

2010-07-13T08:57:00.000-07:00

Hi there,

I am finally in Belgium now, I will write about whats going on here later, now I have got too write up a couple of things that I did before I left the United States.

On Friday I rode my final night of track in Trexlertown for the year. The event was run in conjunction with the American Junior Track National Championships. Not huge money was up for the night and prize money was distributed by an Omnium series.

I wasn't feeling amazing on the night. Legs were quite sore and the weeks training had obivously taken its toll.

Our events for the night were;

10km scratch race
2km scratch race
Super sprint elimination

Legs were very dull in the 10km scratch I was hurting quite a big and missed the split. I was too sore to do anything about bringing it back.

In the 2km Scratch the NZ team of Hash, Chad and Me wanted to get the pace high to get rid of some of the big sprinters. The problem with this was that we didn't want to

be the ones at the front doing this!

Chad and I were stuck towards the end of the bunch with 2 laps to go.. not a good spot.

I yelled at Chad to wind it up and lead me out. We started going 4 wide round the track. right up near the fence, once we were up to the front a lap later we were absolutely flying past the front guys. I tried to go around Chad slightly early and got pipped on the line by US Olympian Bobby Lea. Chad held on for 3rd.

The elimination was no good. I was feeling the best in this race but just didn't have good positioning. I could see that I was going to get last for about half a lap before it happened and had no where to go.

Overall with only a 2nd place I was 5th overall. Hash and Chad were 6th & 7th respectively.

(By the way I look in this picture I must have stitch!)

We attended a race in West Chester on Saturday. The Iron Hill Twilight Criterium. This was simply a great experience. A 4 corner 1km circuit. Race started at 7:45pm! The course went through main streets in the down town. The circuit had a few pubs and people were packed 4 deep around the inside and outside of the course.

I was able to start near the front of the field which was crucial in a race with 150 people taking part.

I stayed in the top 20 for the first couple of laps but struggled to hold my position with the constant attacking and accelerations out of every corner. I started dropping back and the further I went back the harder it got. (groups of 10-20 were being popped out almost every lap) I then made it my goal to move up a couple of places every lap. I started learning the faster lines around the corner and followed the faster wheels in the back straight. I avoided a crash on the 3rd corner after the fast downhill section. This way I made it back up to the front 30 once again. I had really bad stitch and this made the thought of pulling out quite appealing!

When the pace eased up the announcer on the finish line told the field there was a prime and the bell rung. With half a lap to go, it looked like no one was keen to go. So I thought I might as well have a crack and get something out of the race. I attacked off the front in the back straight and got a small 20m gap. I held this into the front straight and kicked again to guarantee taking it without smashing myself (prime ended up being $100US). After that I stayed up the front for a couple of laps before once again falling right to the back of the pack!

By now it was pitched black in the 2nd and 4th straight. I could only just make out the wheels and riders in front of me.

Once again I started making my way up the bunch. I was right at the end of the bunch. becoming victim to the brutal rubber band effect of the peleton! Unfortunately with 5 laps to go I had a wee mishap. I was completely comfortable in the bunch and knew I was going to finish in the bunch easily. The guy in front of me clipped a wheel on the dangerous 3rd corner. I avoided clipping his wheel by altering my line .. towards the hay bales. I saw I was going to scream into them luckily I grabbed the breaks and skidded right up to them. Some how I was able to keep it upright. I clipped back in, but by the time I had done that the bunch was 200m up the road. I started chasing and since I hadn't crashed I didn't think I would get a lap out. I didn't get back on but still finished 50th with bunch time.

I was happy with the race as the only kiwi to finish. I was also stoked to get away without crashing! Some of the 90 degree corners we took 4 or 5 wide at speed had me confused at why there weren't more accidents!

(Nanticoke Criterium

We arrived home at 12.30am then packed all our bikes and gear. - asleep at 2am.

after 3 hours of sleep we woke to catch the 5.30 am bus to New York. What better way to prepare for an international flight than 10 hours of being a tourist in downtown New York with 3 hours sleep??

I can say I enjoyed the experience, but at the time it was a mission! We saw much of the city. places like; Times Square, Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, Rockerfeller Building, Central Park, Ground Zero etc. There were probably many other places we went but wasn't aware of haha! by 9pm we were on the plane to London.

(Chad and I, tired as on a sightseeing bus)

(Atop the Rockerfeller, Empire State in the background)

(Downtown times square)

I will put more photos of past events up soon I am just waiting for them to come up on internet.

Belgium update soon as well

Thanks for reading Ciao!

Nanticoke Crit

2010-07-07T10:01:00.000-07:00

(Sweet chopper we saw on a ride)

Last Saturday we went to a wee town about 1h30min drive away called Nanticoke.

The town had organised a small criterium around the local high school.

A criterium is essentially a small circuit race made for spectators, which, due to the hot whether weren't very many.

The course was just nudging over a kilometer long with a fair bit of up and down, 4 corners that could all be taken at speed. We were fortunate enough to do 60 laps of this circuit.

The field wasn't overly big or strong with about 40 riders, more than that and it would have been a hard race!

I managed to take the front with Hash early on and inflict some pain on those near the back with the rubber band effect. Then Chad took an opportunity to attack solo to heat up the pace even more. After Chad got pulled back I had a go off the front, which was really just to speed things up. By then the field was rather tweaked and Hash then took a flyer and got a decent gap and held that.

(Hash attacking)

Very soon after a group of 7 bridged over to Hash excluding me and Chad. It looked like this group was going to easily lap the field as the pace of the main bunch fell without Chad and I riding the front. For training effect and the expectation that the group was going to make the lap I just started doing stints of 10 lap turns on the front to keep a reasonable pace in the bunch. With 20 laps to go the break was brought back into sight which was a surprise! Soon another group including Chad bridged this gap and I was left with about 8 stragglers.

(Temperature in Kutztown!)

I had written off my chance for a result until the main field appeared to have slowed right down with 3 to go. I managed to shoot across the gap and jump up to 5th wheel in front of Hash with Chad on the front setting the high tempo. It was all back together! With half a lap to go I kicked past the front of the bunch with Hash still on my wheel and delivered him perfectly with 200m to go. I held on for 5th place. It was fairly exciting!

(Before the race - so hot!)

A good way to finish a hard power week!

Monday was a complete rest day, Some of the girls and guys wanted to go check out the Outlets which is an outdoor mall, near Reading 40min drive away.

(From the Outlets car park)

Hottest day ever. Must have been over 40degrees for most of the day. The Mall was absurdly cheap for decent stuff, quite over it for more than 4 hours though!

Last night Chad&I competed in our 2nd to last night of track racing, Heading to Belgium on Sunday. We have still got one more night of Friday Night Track and to cap it off we have Iron Hill Criterium on the Saturday!

Last night was quite a short program with Omnium points once again.

Kieran(motorbike wind up, sprint for 2 laps)
3km scratch
Super sprint elimination(down to 10 riders then 5 lap scratch race)

I didn't have a good showing in the kieran heats and didn't make the final. Which really fired me up for the final two races. I unleashed my anger on the field in the 3 km scratch race and put a 100% sprint in towards the end with 5 laps to go, for a whole lap. A group of 3 of us got away from the field and when I hit the front again I wound it right up to sprinting speed for a lap. The other two with me were in the box!

When one of them came through next time with two laps to go he detonated and the field caught us, Chad flew past with just under 2 laps to go to counterattack a very sore and cross eyed field.

I kicked again and took 3rd place.

In the final race. The "SUPER SPRINT ELIMINATION". essentially a miss and out, or devil, followed by a 5 lap scratch race.

I stayed out of trouble early on as to not get eliminated. With 5 laps to go it was really easy and everyone was pulling up at the front, not keen to take a turn. with 3 and a 1/2 laps to go I hit the front and attacked. The field started sprinting after me with 3 to go. I was able to hold a fast pace and then ramp it up for the last lap and a half to hold Jacky Simes off, who was the only one to catch my wheel with a lap to go.

Once again I won the Omnium series for the night, which suprised me having not made the kieran finals.

More news:

Got sent our race program for Belgium, looks like we will be racing every 3 or 4 days. most races ranging from 50-120km and without a car there we will be riding to the race and back to the accomodation. Which could mean some big days up to 200km!

My immune system, with 12 days off anti-biotics is vunerable to ingrown hairs. Have managed to fend off a few small ones, which would usually flair up a couple of months ago, so I must be doing something right!

Thanks for reading. Ciao!

Another Tuesday Track Night

2010-07-01T14:37:00.000-07:00

Only a few days have past since my last update, but decided to write about an exceptional night at the track on Tuesday.

Once again I must say that Tuesday is more of a practice night for the riders and some of the big hitters don't usually show up. Not as much prize money as well.

Still had the presence of some riders from such teams Trek Live strong and Bissell Pro.

I had felt good in the morning during a 2 hour ride with 3x10min hill efforts. Noticed some form coming along nicely, I knew I was in for a good night at the track.

On arrival to the track, I managed to wreck the nuts on the disc that I was going to use for the night, So I had to step down to using an American Classic track wheel, which is a lot slower than the disc. I am in a power block week at the moment, so I was also riding a big gear - 95. A strong wind also added to the resistance I was going to have to overcome to do well.

The night was as follows:

15lap Scratch race

25lap Points race

1mile(5laps) flying race

10mile(48laps) Scratch.

Total of 93laps - 31km

The money was given out based on an Omnium series setup.

Points of 7,5,3,2,1 given out for respective places.

(Feeling good early in the first race)

I opened up the night with a dominant show in the 15lap scratch race, breaking away from the pack early with 3 others.

With six to go, I was left with Iggy Silva(Trek Livestrong), having dropped the other two riders.

We managed to hold off the bunch and I seated kicked away from Iggy with a lap to go, to take the win with the bunch breathing down my neck.

In the points race I went out a bit hard, and took the first sprint. Soon after a bunch of 4 got away, which Chad managed to bridge across too.

I also tried to bridge a couple of laps later, but by then the gap was too big and the bunch wasn't going to catch them in time.

Chad took 2nd and with my points from the first sprint I took 5th.

(coming into the last few laps)

The flying mile was next, which was going to be a fast and furious race. I stayed active up the front and took a gamble with 2 laps to go. I got a small gap with another rider, no more than 20metres. I decided to hit it, the bunch didn't ease up but I managed to sprint progressively faster over the two laps and hold the gap to win.

(Riding hard in the flying mile)

The 10mile was tame. Most of the riders were too tired to make a move or even complete the race. Chad and I won both crowd primes on offer. $20 worth of quarters each = sweet!

Chad wound it up for the finish with 2 laps to go. Leading out the remaining riders, No one managed to come round him, Iggy was 2nd and I took 3rd.

Overall I won the Omnium with 14 points for a good $40.

$60 is not a bad haul for a "practise night". Quarters are also very handy for doing washing, which is a bonus!

Kutztown Festival is this weekend, which is the oldest running festival in America, allegedly. We will probably go check that out.

4th of July is a big deal in America, plans are still up in the air for what we will do for the day/night.

Rest of the weeks training, continues on the power block with some big gear kilo efforts at the track, erg and road kms.

Can't wait for the Tour de France to start in a couple of days as well!

Thanks for reading.

Cam